It’s difficult enough for me to throw things away.
And because of my tendency to have three of every one thing I need, I often have to get rid of perfectly good stuff. I donate that stuff.
Sometimes I need to get rid of not-perfectly-good-anymore stuff that’s been hanging around much longer than it should. That’s the stuff I have to talk myself into trashing.
I’ve admitted that I’m scatter-brained.
This is why my husband sometimes errs on the side of caution and doesn’t put out for garbage everything I’ve put in the trashcan.
Which drives me bananas.
Maybe it is true that I tend to put the milk in the laundry room, or the dish soap in the fridge, and I can’t remember to close a drawer to save my life . . . .but really . . . . if a slob is trying desperately to change, and finally gets the guts to throw something away that she’s finally accepted is worthless, please don’t make it any harder than it is.
Over the past year or so of this deslobification process, hubby has learned to ask if I meant to throw something away. He’s gotten used to finding clothes in the trash can, as I’ve gotten used to the reality that there comes a time in a shirt’s life when it is no longer fit to even be donated.
He knows me and he knows how hard I’m trying to change.
But evidently the garbage man does not.
See that perfectly nice-looking backpack above? Well, in reality, it’s perfectly awful. It’s been shedding gray flakes of who-knows-what all over everything in it, and all over the bed, or floor, or sofa where it gets unpacked . . . for weeks.
So finally (rather than immediately after noticing this problem), I said, “Enough!” and trashed it.
Hubby asked for confirmation, and put it out for trash pick-up. I went out to get the mail the next day, and guess what?
The trash collectors had left it.
Really? Can you please not make it any harder on this reforming slob to get rid of stuff????
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LOL How funny! Your garbage man leaves stuff. Mine takes it.
I mean, HE takes it…Whenever I clean out a space and have bags of (true) garbage at the curb, my garbage man opens every bag of my trash and paws thru it with his work-gloved hands looking for *whatever* and then most of the time realizes that it's actually garbage and walks away, but I have seen him pocket tennis balls and take my (very rusted) grilling burger basket thing…I'm sure his wife loved that.
I suppose, in your garbage mans defense, that he was just trying to help. I mean, *if* it was a good backpack that was still being used and you had accidentally thrown it out, you would have been greatful to see it and baking cookies for the guy to thank him.
I guess you'll have to pin a note on the backpack that says "This is Garbage" so he can take it home to his wife…
We do have a guy who generally comes around and gets the good stuff before the trash collectors come, but I guess he slept in that day.
When I lived overseas, my apt. building's cleaning crew would just sit down in the hall and pick through the trash. It was actually nice, because I felt like I could put anything in there, and it wasn't going to waste!
I could have written this post. Minus the backpack incident. I have SUCH a hard time throwing away stuff that I think other people could use. I think it comes from my time living in 3rd World Countries. My host mother wanting to keep my used ziploc bags really screwed with my head…
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! That is hilarious…maybe you should start doing what my grandmother did when she didn't want my grandfather digging something out of the trash. Her secret was, "Throw away only one thing so hopefully he won't notice. But in case he does, cover it with grease so he can't take it out if he wants to." Sounds like a plan to me!!
That's funny, but try to get rid of a garbage can.You almost can't!
We had a large garbage can, you know the type you put your garbage out to the curb with, that was starting to fall apart. Bought a new can, put old can inside new can and filled with the weeks garbage. Garbage men took the bags out of the can and left the old can inside the new can. Okaaay!
The next week we took a black magic marker and marked the can as garbage and to please take. Left it empty next to the filled can. They didn't take it. Did it again the next week with the same results, they didn't take it.
Hubby finally had to take a hack saw to it and cut it into pieces to get rid of it
in our municipality, we have to buy specially colored trash bags for our garbage (it’s their way of charging the trash collection fee)… for anything large, that doesn’t fit in a garbage bag, we would have to buy a “bulk trash” sticker to stick on it. one trash bag is $1. a “bulk trash” sticker is $5. i probably would’ve hack-sawed the can and stuck it in a bag just to save the four extra bucks…. but then again, my husband brought home not one, but TWO (on two separate occasions) of other people’s old unwanted garbage cans to use for our recyclables. yea, the hubs is at least 65% of my slob problem.
pssst…There are some awesome organizations out there that would LOVE this backpack to use to bless a child in a crisis situation. One I know a little about (that has a drop-off in my area) is Bags Not Rags…. http://www.BagsNotRags.com . The bags are passed out to social workers to assist a child in packing their belongings when they are being removed from a bad situation. If they don't have a bag like this, the child is given a black plastic trash bag.. can you imagine the trauma of the situation to a child?
We have more than our share of duplicate-triplicate backpacks/duffle bags/etc and it's an awesome feeling knowing how much it will be appreciated by a foster child who has almost nothing of their own.
Awesome job on your progress!
I would *usually* totally agree with this, but I think Dana made the right decision in this instance.
I came from a childhood with very little, in a remote area very far from shops. I have also been in that situation where I was removed from my home with only a bag of my belongings (good parents, but long story).
I would have preferred my precious things safe and sound clean in a black garbage bag, than be given a nice looking backpack that was going to put grey flakey stuff all over my worldly possessions and also the new environment I was taken too. This, for me, would have
been worse.
I think some things just can’t be passed on, if they are beyond repairable and would pass on problems with it. And I am someone who has a hard time recycling boxes and things that could be reused without the cost of resources to recycle them.
In addition, I have a Scarcity Mentality, where I often think in “Water World” terms – you know the movie where the world is covered in water, nothing new is being manufactured and EVERYTHING is precious to someone? I once tried to donate a rusty dish rack because “it’s better than nothing and someone may need it” (it was thrown out at the donation centre because they can’t pass on rusty stuff, lesson learned). But I still, as a displaced child, wouldn’t have wanted a bag that was going to put yucky flakes all over my clothes and humble treasures.
LOL! I can totally relate to the dish-washing fiasco!
Debbie, that totally cracked me up picturing your husband taking a hacksaw to the garbage can so you could get rid of it!
Their mom, thanks for the info on the Bags not Rags organization, as we do often have so many extra backpacks somehow. We donated about six last summer! This one, however, was in horrible shape even though the outside looked so good. Everything that went in it came out covered in gray plastic-ey flakes, because the lining was disintegrating.
HA!! sorry I missed the gross shedding detail! That is totally something my hubby would have done,, rescuing it from the curb. I say take a match or X-acto knife to it, lol!
Oh, funny! It’s been so long since we’ve had garbage collectors who even touch the bins!! We have those bins that the trucks pick up themselves, so no one actually has to touch them! I thought trash that was actually picked up and dumped was a thing of the past 😀 (I remember it from when I was a kid… over 20 years ago now!).
I have valet trash pick up in my apartment complex. Last night I put all the trash out before we went to Target and bought my husband a new pair of pants. When we got home, I put the old pants on top of the trash, but under the lid because it still hadn’t been picked up. When we brought the can back in, I found that they had left the pants INSIDE THE CAN! Even if it had been a mistake he certainly my wouldn’t wear the pants now! Gross- and now the pants are at the bottom of the next trash bag.
When I was a child, we got a hole in our trash can. Do you want to know how many weeks it took to throw our broken trashcan away? We even put notes on it, labeling it as trash, but of course the trash man believed we were labeling the contents, since recycling was the new trend then. I believe we eventually had to haul it to the dump ourselves.
I was going to say the same thing as Elisabeth. We could not get them to take away the broken can for anything. They tried notes, they tried laying it on top of the new can. They even ran it over so it would fit in the new can. Nothing. Eventually my mom sat out there in the driveway until they came by and begged them to take the can, they were reluctant, but finally took it.
I just wanted to make a quick comment about sending clothes to the garbage. St Vinnie’s (at least in my area) sends clothes that are no longer wearable or sellable to a recycling place that turns them into rags. So even if they are badly stained, have holes or whatever, they can still be reused.
Very true! I loved when I found out my local donation place does the same.
The very hardest thing to get the garbage man to to haul away is the trash can. I mean the trash can itself, the one with the rusted-out bottom that won’t even hold garbage anymore. Even a sign saying, “This is trash” doesn’t help.
I know what you mean about some shirts not being donateable but I recently found out my salavation army takes torn/scrap fabric because they send it in bundles to a fabric recycler and they actually get paid for it and can then use that money to feed the homeless etc. Just thought you would like to know. Mine (central Texas) actually told me they pretty much take anything and will find a way to use it. I also send them all the random coat hangers I don’t want and small random Knick knacks because they put them out for sale for a nickel (like a garage sale) and I don’t have to mess with them anymore and they use the money to help others.