Introducing WWIT - What Was I Thinking??!?

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Introducing WWIT - What Was I Thinking??!?

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Started 3 months ago by candy
Latest reply from chacha1
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candy
Member

When going through my stuff, I am quite often faced with the question "what was I thinking?". It is not a question of a fantasy self, because with a fantasy self it is quite easy to figure out what I was thinking even if it was completely crazy. It's just a matter of... well, I'll give you an example.

I'm not particularly fond of tinned tuna. But somehow I bought 3 small tins of tuna, thinking that I would make tuna salad or something like that.

A couple of weeks ago I had second thoughts, I really did not want to eat that tuna. But I tried to find recipes that would make me want to eat it anyway, because it would be horribly wasteful to just throw it away.

I ended up with the idea - again - of tuna salad. Rice or pasta based, with... oh, corn! Corn is probably nice in a tuna salad. So I bought 3 small tins of corn.

I don't even particularly like corn.

I now have 3 tins of tuna and 3 tins of corn in my pantry. I still don't know what to do with it.

WWIT.

Posted 3 months ago #
ninakk
Member

My pride and joy for this thread is my still unwashed delicate laundry. I simply can't stand washing by hand and so it ends up floating in the basket for months and, hrm, years. Some of you might remember my story a while ago where I fessed up after having found a bag of unwashed stuff since before I met my husband. I don't know what is wrong with me, but even now I'm postponing washing the last items. Needless to say one of the tops in there should be washed since my family and I are going to the 90-year celebration of the national ballet and opera tomorrow, but i am too tired to do it before going to bed, I keep telling myself, yet then I don't have anything to wear so go figure. The epitome of an organized home, right...

Posted 3 months ago #
behejo
Member

Hi candy, that's really weird. My WWIT territory is clothes and all sorts of make up.

Sometimes I buy clothes that I then don't dare to wear because of a too bright color or shiny accessories or an unusual cut. Concerning make up I tend to buy eye-catching eye shadow or (mentioned in some other thread) peculiar lipstick colors or creams for very special purposes (breast firming gel, anti-fat gel, rough-handled feet cream,....). For the latter I don't take my time so the products just grow old or I apply them like crazy for one week and then never again. The funny clothes and make up I just don't use at all as I don't like to be drawn into the limelight or that people think that a woman with some overweight looks a bit funny in too modern/hip clothes. I am not really a shy person, but I want to blend into the crowd.

So seeing some clothes in my closet or products in my bathroom cabinet I just go WWIT?! Again, I might add!

Posted 3 months ago #
rutheverhart
Member

@candy, those tins are great items for a food bank! Maybe that's what you were thinking!

Posted 3 months ago #
candy
Member

Ah, Ruth - maybe! But I don't know if there is such a thing as a food bank here in Stockholm. Will investigate.Thanks!

Posted 3 months ago #
Ella
Member

Although I'm a recovering shopaholic now, back in 2001 I discovered eBay Wonderland and went on a wild bidding and buying rampage. The WWIT moment finally came when I bid on and won a pair of sterling grape shears in the frenzy of a bidding war of shocking proportions. I've since tried reselling them on eBay, but evidently no one is as crazy as I once was. So I keep them and use them with a rueful sigh. They are beautiful, but WWIT???

Posted 3 months ago #
ninakk
Member

Another good one is the amount of stuff moved time and time again without any heureka moment appearing. Costly and tough, at least I see more clearly now. But to admit to what I schlepped home from Denmark two years ago is mind-boggling. It is almost as if I can't forgive myself for having been that blind.

Posted 3 months ago #
liag
Member

My what was I thinking area is--or was, mostly--plastic and glass food storage containers and actually all sorts of little boxes, believe it or not. I got over the books and moved to a box fetish. Hmm.

Posted 3 months ago #
liag
Member

I moved a carton (another box!) of boxes to several residences and only pared them down upon my most recent move where there is no space to store them all.I don'tneed them, miss them. WWIT???

Posted 3 months ago #
chacha1
Member

A box of boxes? Well, boxes can be very appealing!

I have a small stockpile of empty boxes myself for shipping things from my etsy store, but it's a VERY small stockpile since I have a VERY small store of mostly VERY small things. :-)

WWIT ... I don't think I really have this issue as an ongoing thing. There are several areas of life that have been uncluttered over the past few years but as I was uncluttering I was never really questioning why I had the stuff.

The one thing I've tripped over recently was the Trousers of Doom. The black pants I got thinking I should have some more proper, businesslike pants but that I just don't like enough to wear regularly.

Posted 3 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

i go to bali regularly.
the first time i went there was 17 years ago.
i was young and i had very little money and bali was a cornucopia of beautiful handcrafted goodies to be had for next to nothing.
it was a Very Bad Combo.
i bought far too much stuff over the next fifteen years....too much to list.....and ended up pretty much giving it all away.
my last three of four trips there have been models of restraint however....i arrive and depart with the same carry-on bag, with perhaps a handful of vanilla beans.

now, i have fifteen handwoven thai silk lengths in glorious colours, and no clue what to do with them.
too much "back" on them to be scarves.
we use latex pillows as cushions. with pillow cases so that i can merrily launder off the cat hair.
maybe an insanely luxurious throw?

Posted 3 months ago #
celebkiriedhel
Member

Bandicoot - if they match your rooms at all - they'd make great swags for your curtains. Also handwoven thai silk - that's beautiful clothing territory. Also - have you thought about an insanely gorgeous patchwork to hang on the wall, or use as a decorative rug on your bed or sofa?

WWIT. To be honest, that's my career choice. And I think the problem is that I have never come up with a reasonable alternative, and it's a duty and declutter thing.

I'm doing a job that does not stimulate me (it's fairly boring except for maybe 1% of the time when unreasonable expectations cause everything to be overtime), that I have little to no respect for - financial industry who are pretty much the scum of the earth. It stresses and depresses me, has accelerated problems with my health and I earn less now than I did 10 years ago. (That's the IT industry for you).

I just wish that I had run screaming from the job interview 30 years ago rather than take it because they wanted me.

I did computing because my career counsellor thought it would be a good idea TM. I wanted to be a maths teacher, but that ship has sailed.

Now I'm 50 (in May) and not a clue of what I want to do for the next 15-20 working years, that will not leave me a wrecked shell of a person.

Posted 3 months ago #
djk
Member

Celeb--I have had career angst all of my working life, although right now I'm doing something I love but pays so poorly that it's becoming incompatible with my goals. I'm tossing around ideas right now for myself.

Is there any way to segue your hobbies or interests into a sideline career which could eventually become lucrative enough to live on? Some years ago I read Barbara Sher and Julie Cameron and both writers gave me new insight into my situation at the time. Even though I was working full-time I took a training course out of interest. It was geared to the unemployed but I also drew a lot of inspiration and a new perspective from it.

Posted 3 months ago #
irishbell
Member

Bandicoot- my first thought was some sort of wall hanging also, would be gorge!!
Or possibly a table runner.
One thing I'm looking forward to getting from my dads condo when it sells is a
beautiful glass covered shadowbox with a crazy quilt folded up inside it.
I don't remember who made it, but it is the most fab silk piecings of fabric, with what looks like
fancy embroidery floss sewing all the pieces together.
Since you have whole large pieces, maybe a shadow box type frame where you could occassionally
switch out pieces (folded to size) according to your fancy, might be an idea.

Posted 3 months ago #
candy
Member

@ninakk: I'm not very fond of hand-washing clothes either, but I've adopted a modified version of the system I read about somewhere, I think it was on this forum in a thread dealing with bras/underwear. I simply put the thing that needs to be washed in a basin of some sort, with cold or lukewarm water and some liquid detergent for delicate laundry, and let it lie there for an hour or so (a bit depending on what it is). Then I rinse and hang/lay out to dry. The original poster used a detergent that didn't even need to be rinsed out but of course it is not available here in Sweden.

Posted 3 months ago #
celebkiriedhel
Member

djk - I don't know. I'm floundering around at the moment looking for direction.

I've spent the last 5 years 'on-hold' life-wise, because of life decisions, and mum dying, so there's still some work to do to find out just what those aspirations and interests are. And how I can do it within the limitations of my health.

I'm definitely over the whole office 9-6 world though. The contract I'm working on (finishes next Friday) is the best compromise I've got so far (I work from home). Things will have to change.

Posted 3 months ago #
celebkiriedhel
Member

Oh Noes!!! I've killed the thread!!!

Posted 3 months ago #
Astreja
Member

Hey! *I'm* supposed to be the thread killer around here. :-D

I have a WWIT: A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple of pork tenderloins because they were on sale. I keep forgetting that I don't particularly _like_ pork all that much, sale or no sale.

I cooked 'em up, ate some, froze some of the cooked stuff for lunch... And then kept finding excuses not to use them for lunch. Brought a serving to work yesterday, and tried to salvage it with some cheap barbecue sauce (something else that's a WWIT for me). Tossed out half of it, uneaten. If I think of it, next time I'm at the freezer I'll garbage the rest of it.

Posted 3 months ago #
mskris
Member

celeb: I can sympathize with your work dilemma. I just gave notice at my current job because I've been really miserable, but the new job is a pretty big paycut (which may be offset by my dh getting a job). I'm still doing the same type of work (medical regulatory writing for the pharmaceutical industry), and it's okay, but I keep thinking of a major career change - to what I'm not sure. I'm about the same age as you, too.

I did start a Master's program in another area of the pharmaceutical industry, so maybe that will help me branch out a bit - my bachelor's is in English, which is limiting. I should finish my MS in a little over 2 yrs. Then I guess I'll see if I want to use it! LOL.

Posted 3 months ago #
Another Deb
Member

My WWIT is nail polish. I have not worn polish on my fingernails since the 1980's. The practice was time consuming, high maintenence and made my nails split and break.

However, I got one pedicure, in 2007 when I was getting married. For that they used the salon's polish. After that, I wanted to have pretty toes but never kept up with it. It makes no sense, because I never wear strappy shoes. Orthodics all the way for me! How did I end up with eight colors of polish, slowly solidifying in the drawer?

Posted 3 months ago #

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