J – Junk, what a waste!

What if you didn’t want to get rid of all your junk?

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of junk is:

1. any old or discarded material, as metal, paper, or rags.
2. anything that is regarded as worthless, meaningless, or contemptible; trash.

Our houses are full of it: bottles, cans, pieces of wires, old toys, fixtures, boxes, etc. Add to that old toys, albums, books, magazines, and personal items, and the piles can get very big.  The question to ask is what do you do with all of this junk? The simplest solution…Throw it out!

Easy to say…harder to do. Some things have sentimental value only to you, others serve no purpose in their present state (but if altered?), still others are pieces of your own history, and some are just plain garbage.

Garbage you can probably throw out. A lot of the stuff you can recycle or if you are really creative you can turn everyday objects into other useful things such as new games or artwork.

When I was teaching 5th grade we took students to a recycling center to see how it operated. One of the projects that students had to do for me was to repurpose some of this junk. Here are three examples of the things they created.

     A marionette,                             a checker game,                             and a bowling set.  

I was very impressed with the creative thought put into all the things that my class produced. Of course, over time, these new things created will fall into disuse and return to the “Junk” category, unless they become reclassified as sentimental items or part of your history.

I’m a storyteller. The hardest things for me to part with are the things that are part of my story. My old school notebooks, some of my teaching material and work from my students, things that I’ve written, either when I was a kid or now. Some of the things that tell my history only tell my history if you want to do some digging. My pocket calendars and checkbook registers share some of the lifestyle I led. Where I spent my money. What events occurred that I was involved with. Combine some of those events, checks, and writings that I’ve done and you get a picture of my life.

At some time in my life, I know I will have to downsize my collections. My recourse will be to make and keep electronic copies of some of my collections. Scan those old papers, and notebooks, maybe all of the meaningful birthday, and anniversary cards I’ve held onto. Make a digital keepsake that only takes memory not space. It may mean only something to me, or possibly something to pass down to future generations to know who I am.

But in the end, it will go where all junk goes…away.

Now here’s a thought:  What if someone was willing to start a Kickstarter project to create a junk repository of personal histories?