It was a perfectly good envelope. A perfectly good, big envelope.
There was no reason to pitch it. No reason at all why I couldn’t re-use it.
And aren’t envelopes (especially big ones) the stuff of dreams? Just imagine filling them with photos or coloring pages or full-sized papers that needed be kept together. Or sending off our tax information to the accountant.
But I’ve learned to factor in travel time.
I tend to be that person who thinks/says “Oh. I totally have time to do that!” while assuming she’s being completely realistic about how her day is going to go.
But then I’m also that person who realizes she didn’t consider travel time.
Run into “town” and go hither, thither and yon?
Sure! Sounds like a plan!
But getting from hither to thither takes fifteen minutes which makes that five minute errand take twenty minutes. And who has the time to get to yon?? Yon is, like, another 27 minutes in the opposite direction.
I generally have a list of five errands at the beginning of a day, but am lucky if I make three happen.
Travel time.
I also have to factor in the “travel time” of useful stuff that randomly ends up in my possession. Like the envelope. I got it at my kids’ basketball game when my husband asked me to pass out team photos.
But when I looked at it, I realized there was too much travel required between “Oh, look at the pretty free envelope!!” and actually putting it where envelopes go inside my home.
I’d have to hang on to it until the end of the second basketball game. If I wanted to NOT forget about it on the floor, I’d probably need to fold it up and stuff it in my purse. Then, it would no longer be pretty. And would almost certainly become one with all other other trash in there.
Even if I managed to get it to the car, the travel time between the gymnasium and my house would almost guarantee it ended up in the floorboard, ready to be muddied by Kid Shoes and forgotten by Mom Brains.
And even if I managed to get it out of the car and into the house, it would most likely end up on a pile of other randomness and not make it to the Envelope Drawer until a future Decluttering Project. A decluttering project that would likely happen just AFTER I needed the envelope, but didn’t know where it was.
Y’all, one free envelope isn’t worth all that stress.
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--Nony
LOL!! This is not the first time–and I am sure it will not be the last time–that you have written a post that I could have written myself. I am just sitting here looking around at all the things I have that were just too good to throw away. Very few of them have found a new home yet. I think I will go now and give most of them a new home in the trashcan. Thanks!
My first read of your blog…one of many I hope. You write like I live. I need much help ~ looking forward to finding some here. Thanks.
Your point is such an amazing one! I nearly always mail in checks I have to deposit. It’s totally worth the time to travel here and there.
After every line, I like, “True. So true. Completely agree.” Sometimes, we just have to be VERY realistic about what we can and cannot reasonably accomplish.
yep. uh-huh. I hear ya. so true. I now have another automated Nony-Message playing in my head “It’s OK to throw the envelope away, Linda” Thank you!
Weighing up the stress/time versus the saving (saving money, saving the planet, saving whatever) is something I’m getting better at because you’ve pointed it out again and again and again in enough different ways that I’m starting to get it. A few more times might help though.
It has been pointed out to me that my comment might be misunderstood. I just want to clarify that when I say I need to weigh up my time against saving the planet I mean that just because I have the skills to re-fashion every piece of clothing that comes my way, doesn’t mean that I have to hold onto it to do that, or never buy a new item again. It’s okay for me to donate it and go and buy a new item. Just because that’s not the absolute optimum thing for the planet doesn’t mean I’m just sending a new top to landfill every day either. Holding onto items just because I *could* do something with it doesn’t really serve me or the planet if I don’t actually do something with it when my time is too limited to do so. Understanding which items I will make time for, and those I won’t make time for, is so very important to maintaining my home.
I love pretty envelopes and keep them but can never find them.
I waste time looking for them. I do have a draw where they are supposed to live ,but it is between finding the envelope putting it down to do something else that makes it disappear from my mind until I want it, then can not find it.
Ban pretty envelopes then none of us would have this problem.
Have a lovely Easter.