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Get Cut or Make the Cut
Recently I mentioned I was thrilled to be surrounded by my tchotchkes, but I forgot to mention I am underwhelmed by some of the other stuff I’ve crammed into my life. For some reason I can’t seem to part with things I don’t need, want or use. I may be that person in the meme who says things like, “It’s a good box. Maybe I should keep it.”
In the last two years I’ve had plenty of time to look around the old homestead and wonder which objects (not the tchotchkes) will make the cut—or if I’ll be able to “make those cuts”. Again, I know I’ve said I can’t part with a lot of the bits and bobs collected over the years, but I’m taking about those things that just don’t serve any purpose in my life. They don’t evoke great memories and they take up a lot of real estate. I’ve got questions. How many unused hanging files does a person really need? I’d say we use about twenty or thirty for bank statements, tax receipts and medical expenses, but I think we’ve got a whole lot more than we need. Like I said, I have questions. What about that photo printer we haven’t used for at least three years? We stopped using it for a couple of reasons, firstly the photo paper started jamming in the back and, secondly, most of the images we want to share with folks we send by email, straight from the phone or the computer. So, as much as I am attached to my technical toys, it’s “buh-bye” to the photo printer. Speaking of gadgets, when our parents passed away LOML and I became the caregivers for all of the film negatives, photographs and slides. We have boxes of negatives and slides. I saw this as a project in the making and purchased a film negative and slide scanner. This sleek, impressive gadget kept me entertained for about three months. About two-thirds of that time was spent setting the scanner up and then figuring out how to use it and then getting the image to show up on my computer. I did this little dance every time my precious scanner was put to use. But it was always an “old dog, new trick” kind of adventure whenever the scanner came out. Seriously, it was as if I’d never used it before. And then? Well, and then it occurred to me our regular printer could basically do the same job, without all of the doodads, and I actually knew how to use the regular printer. The scanner was lovingly packed up and put on a shelf underneath the photo printer and next to the silk screen machine. I tell ya, I can’t remember the last time anything was silk-screened in this house but the silkscreener isn’t on the radar for dumping—yet. LOML will have the last word on that bit of gadgetry.
I have pulled a lot of technology from the shelves this past weekend. I’ve been bitten by the “get rid of it” bug. How long should a person keep a collection of cassettes? Cassettes that haven’t been played in at least a decade, probably closer to three decades, and I’m pretty sure the cassette player is kaput. The cassette player rests quietly next to the portable CD player purchased in 2002 and very near to the tuner-amplifier from the late seventies. To be honest, LOML is a reluctant discarder of any kind of musical medium, and many of the players of CDs and cassette tapes are his, so they are not mine to discard. But, come on, there is a Classical CD collection that hasn’t been played since I was wearing a suit and sitting at a desk! I’m thinking those CDs and the vertical teak and wrought iron stand can be re-homed, at least to a storage box and into the barn, or the cellar. And what about the mat cutter? I used it a couple of times and I realized it paid to have a professional do that work. Some of the mats I did cut sport a bit of decorative blood. That freaking cutter is “hella” sharp. My body twitches when I think about using that instrument of torment and pain.
Of course, it’s not all technology that will be “shown the door”. I have an impressive collection of notes from the Canadian Conservation Institute. I’m talking about a massive load of notes in three-ring binders. I am a certified museum person, but whenever I have a question I don’t thumb through those binders. Nope, I’ve got Google™ at my fingertips and the online information is actually up-to-date. I’ve got piles of piles upon piles of piles of stuff which “doesn’t spark joy” (thanks Marie Kondo). It’s going to get ugly before it gets pretty.
If anyone is looking for a fifteen-year-old laptop and a corrupt copy of Windows 98, I know a person.
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