Yes, it's the de-cluttering and organizing that is the challenge, isn't it? Actually getting rid of things is so difficult!
Too Much of a Good Thing!
- Thread starter ResolvableOwl
- Start date
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I have a nice addition to my collection. While I have eaten most of my previous cheese collection (and sadly had to throw away a couple), yesterday my sister asked me to take home all the leftover cheese from the charcuterie tray she had prepared. I was so happy. I think it was because she heard me identifying all the cheeses by their appearance and color of their rind.
I have to confess that because I travel between 3 places, routinely 2 in the US and 1 in Central America, I've been able to sort of disguise my stashes.
There's the soaping stash in El Salvador dug up by my roommate. The soaping molds because I was planning on doing a major soap batch. Oh boy. Thirteen silicone molds, the largest with 12 individual 3.5oz bars in the shape of turkeys, the smallest a 6 bar heart one of 2.5oz bars. There were 2 logs made of cedar, and 2 plywood slab molds. The wooden ones made to order by a local carpenter, who makes my furniture as well.
My yarn stash is also spread between this house, my older son's house in San Antonio, and I'll be leaving some here in WI with my younger son. Hopefully I'll be back to pick it up later this year to join its entity in San Antonio. My collection is almost 90% cotton yarn, with thread #30 to worsted weight. I love crocheting really tiny stuff, and things for my soaps, and everything in between. My kids don't like for me to give anything away, except my younger son who "uses" my stuff to romance his dates. That includes the soaps.
I don't even count the kitchen stuff I keep buying when I'm at any of these houses because I keep leaving it behind for them to use.
The longest I've lived anywhere since I was born was 4 years, and those 3 periods have been a tie between my birthplace of San Francisco, and El Salvador. So I can only REALLY claim stashes with the stuff that I left with my Nanny and at my house, both in ES.
There's the soaping stash in El Salvador dug up by my roommate. The soaping molds because I was planning on doing a major soap batch. Oh boy. Thirteen silicone molds, the largest with 12 individual 3.5oz bars in the shape of turkeys, the smallest a 6 bar heart one of 2.5oz bars. There were 2 logs made of cedar, and 2 plywood slab molds. The wooden ones made to order by a local carpenter, who makes my furniture as well.
My yarn stash is also spread between this house, my older son's house in San Antonio, and I'll be leaving some here in WI with my younger son. Hopefully I'll be back to pick it up later this year to join its entity in San Antonio. My collection is almost 90% cotton yarn, with thread #30 to worsted weight. I love crocheting really tiny stuff, and things for my soaps, and everything in between. My kids don't like for me to give anything away, except my younger son who "uses" my stuff to romance his dates. That includes the soaps.
I don't even count the kitchen stuff I keep buying when I'm at any of these houses because I keep leaving it behind for them to use.
The longest I've lived anywhere since I was born was 4 years, and those 3 periods have been a tie between my birthplace of San Francisco, and El Salvador. So I can only REALLY claim stashes with the stuff that I left with my Nanny and at my house, both in ES.
I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the things I brought back home with me from when my granddaughter & I lived in that wonderfully tiny house in San Antonio. The plan had been that she would want it in her apartment, but that didn't happen. She is still living with her parents near Houston & their house sold on the first day of showing after listing. I suppose there will be a short stint in a rental of some sort (hotel or whatever) while waiting for whatever they buy for themselves to close!
In the meantime, although I gave some mirrors from SA to granddaughter, I brought most of it back here and only a small portion of it got put into service here. I did return some of it to the Goodwill in San Antonio from whence it came, though.
I used to live in two places another time as well. I had a condo in the city where I worked and a house in the country that my previous husband had purchased before we married. We stayed in the city during the work week and staying in the country on our days off. After he died, I couldn't stop the habit of living in both places and in fact for awhile would do the daily commute from the country house because I really loved living in a forest.
But having two sets of everything to keep in two different places, is costly, not only to purchase, but to move or store, if & when moving takes place, as it has and does happen. I can't even imagine having 3 sets of everything. Maybe not totally true. I do have some soaping stuff that I tend to use almost exclusively when I travel.
I guess I would have a really hard time adjusting to a minimalist's lifestyle.
I have always been a planner, really, though mostly in my head because I had an unstable childhood. So I had to quickly, very quickly, decide which things I could do without, permanently.
I get to a place, anywhere, and I start making lists. First in my head, then in a notebook, of the stuff that gets acquired. Purchase receipts and manuals. And they're kept in binders. So when I leave, they stay behind and my kids, or my relatives, know what I left.
And no matter where I live, there are always go-bags, mainly backpacks, that always have basic items, and nowadays some crocheting and soaping absolute needs (that would be a set of hooks and a clipper for the crochet bug; 3oz of castor oil, 3oz of coconut, and several pairs of nitrile gloves for soaping, these aren't easy to get or are fake, or aren't cheap).
I can't always bake bread, but there's always some kind of thread available, and caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is easy to find usually, and another hard oil like palm, or or canola or cheap olive oil (Bertoli comes to mind) is also available.
All a bit obsessive. I know. But it's the only way I find to not leave my mind behind. 🫣
I still haven’t learned this trick. After many years of traveling, you can still find me frantically looking for my toiletries the night before I have to leave. You make it sound so easy. Thanks for the tip
Visit your local thrift stores! No joke. I just found A Dell genuine leather soft briefcase with a cross-over removable strap, capable of carrying 2 laptops in one outside console, and enough room in the center one for at least 2 1" binders if I were so inclined. Not that I would, I couldn't carry that much weight, but it's roomy enough for that much volume in YARN. Plus the stationery section zips down completely, which means I can arrange all my hooks in it and just crochet to my heart's content with everything at my fingertips. And then it just zips right back up as if it was a laptop. And this magic bag only cost me $7. Lots of wonderful goodies await, for pennies on the dollar. And you're saving lots of goods from ending up polluting the environment to boot! So, to me, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, when it comes to being a good and WISE thrift store consumer!
