It’s amazing how many things we accumulate in a lifetime. I have a tendency to keep more than I will ever want/need/use in a lifetime simply because I hate to see useful stuff go to the landfill. The irony of it all is the only time I ever consider an item’s utility is when I pack or unpack it, see it and ponder whether or not to keep it.
Sentimental items simply add another layer of throw-away difficulty. Though none are really useful (I can’t think of the next time I’ll ever use my high school mortarboard tassel), they help us to remember a significant or special event/person inevitably adding to the clutter of our lives.
I had a friend recently ask me what I considered the most difficult thing to throw away. After listing several sentimental items as possible answers he replied with, ‘a garbage can.’ Turns out he had an old trash can that was no good and had put it on the curb with the rest of his junk but the garbage men wouldn’t take it. Even after writing the word ‘trash’ on it he would still find it on his curb when he returned home from work. After three weeks of unsuccessful attempts to dispose of this worthless trash can he finally took his saws-all and cut it into pieces. I guess sometimes an item that isn’t sentimental or even useful can’t be easily thrown away.