War on Junk - Day 18

One of the side benefits of declaring war on junk is that in the 5 minutes I spend selecting the days 10 pieces, I will occaisonally come across something useful. Like today I found my Nikon Coolpix 4500 Guide. I have been looking for it for a couple of years! That's one of the insidious things about junk - it obscures the useful.

Today's Junkorama

1. A Japanese fan box - empty
2. A box containing lacquered paper bows
3. A Kenwood Portable CD player
4. An empty film canister
5. A charging device for something
6. A booklet - Growing Children: A Parent's Guide
7. A bag containing coin tubes.
8. A set of Sony headphones
9. A cord for a computer or printer
10. A plastic round box top

War On Junk - Day 13

A large bolt of fabric showed up in the junk tote. By volume it takes up a lot of space. Then there is the usual culling from various drawers around the house'

Todays' Junk:

1. A bolt of fabric
2. Two obsolete keys on a ring
3. Another obsolete key
4. An eraser
5. An orange peeler (I think we can live without this)
6. A strawberry huller
7. A plastic gizmo
8. A Radio Shack Enercell AA battery
9. A chrome bolt with a washer for something very specific - don't know what!
10. A plastic bag with 2 pennies, a nickel and a US dime.

War on Junk - Day 10 - A Christmas Special!

Day 10 - One hundred pieces of junk consigned to banishment! It hasn't even made a dent in the chaos, but it does feel good. It was Christmas tree time on the weekend and like every other year, a string of lights no longer works. When I was a child we had the screw in, flame-shaped, multi-coloured lights. If one of them went out, you could replace it. Today's miniature, cheap little twinkly lights are garbage as soon as one light goes out. On my website for Rare and Precious.com, I have a gallery dedicated to the well-made object, items I have owned for decades that are still useful and functional. http://www.rareandprecious.com/

Todays Christmas list.

1. Miniature artificial tree
2. A string of christmas lights
3. A wreath of twigs
4. A cluster of fake cherries
5. A blue glass globe ornament
6. A pink glass globe ornament
7. A red glass globe ornament
8. A white and gold christmas tree ornament
9. A round white plastic attachment for a massage tool
10. Two more of the above

Strictly speaking that's 11 items - we'll call it a Christmas bonus.

War on Junk - Day 9

I have mentioned this project to a few people and it seems to have struck a nerve. Upon hearing that I am eliminating 10 pieces of junk a day some have said "I'm going to do that!" We could call ourselves the junkinistas. Any way, I got rid of some bulky junk today.

Here is the list:

1. A CD for a Samsung computer?
2. Cardboard box for my Blackberry World Edition
3. Cardboard box for the Nikon Macro Cool-Light SL-1
4. Nikon Guide de demarrage rapide for the Coolpix 4500
5. Nikon French Instruction manualfor the Coolpix 4500
6. Nikon multi lingual instruction manual for the Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
7. A plastic black felt tip pen
8. A broken zipper pull.
9. A Nikon Quick start guide for the Coolpix 4500
10. A cork stopper from a Martell Cognac

Ironically, the one thing I really need of all the Nikon stuff is the English instruction manual for my Coolpix 4500 and it is nowhere to be found. I did find some useful accessories for my Blackberry that I didn't know I had - like a car charger and some earphones. The war on junk is having some useful side effects. Who knows what else I will discover once the junk is out of the way?

The War on the War on Junk - Day 8

It turns out, the war in junk is not as popular as I expected. In fact, in some quarters it has been met with scorn and derision. I will however persevere, for I believe it to be a noble and worthy challenge.

Today's Junk:

1. A vintage address book (way before e-mail)
2. Michael Jackson's rehearsal glove
3. An impressive plastic device, precisley made for a very specific and unknown purpose
4. A plastic bag with 1 screw and 1 pencil tip
5. A Nikon Coolpix 4500 French manual
6. A Nikon Battery manual
7. A charging converter for an obsolete device
8. A highliter in a case
9. Telus maual Our Privacy Commitment to You
10. A JDRF folder

War on Junk - Day 6 The Resistance

Here's how it works. Every evening I cast a glance in various cupboards and drawers and find ten superfluos pieces of junk. Perhaps it's a pad of heart-shaped Post-it notes or a duplicate of some seldom used device. I pile the offending articles on my desk to take a quick photo. Last night, my wife objected to disposing the heart-shaped Post-it notes and three pencil sharpeners. After some negotiations we agreed to get rid of one pencil sharpener. There was no shortage of suitable candidates to replace the reprieved junk. I can see the junk war may morph into a guerilla campaign - the Resistance movement has been born.

Today's junk:

1. A phone cable
2. A staple remover (we have two)
3. A plastic pencil sharpener
4. A computer mouse
5. A Texas Instruments BA-35 financial calculator
6. A Quantum Micro-V FM Auto Scan Radio (genuine junk)
7. Some to/From labels
8. A pair of Steelworks keys from Desmoines Iowa
9. A floppy disc
10. A set of instructions for an obsolete computer

War on Junk - Day 5

No shortage of junk in sight. This is the easy part, getting rid of the obvious stuff, once that's all gone it will get harder as we contemplate things with emotional attachments. I discovered an unopened box of contact lenses in the medicine cabinet. I bought these for skiing last year using my old prescription but found out recently that it has changed,so they are now obsolete. Most junk started its life as a useful or potentially useful object and became obsolete over time.

Day 5 list.

1. A plastic spine for a report
2. Avery hole reinforcers
3. A Lego arch
4. A pull for a zipper
5. An empty staple box
6. A defunct marker pen
7. A floppy disc
8. A suction cup arrow for a toy gun
9. A pad of paper from Executive Hotels & Resorts
10. A plastic bag containing 2 plastic pencil lead holders

The tote is now half-full.

War on Junk - Day 4

I've mentioned my war on junk to a couple of people. They seem to agree that the proliferation of stuff is a common problem. It's not like we are not constantly getting rid of garbage and recycling and giving things away. We are. It's just not enough and a large part of the problem is the manufacturing of junk disguised as useful items. For example electronic converters. We must have 10 obsolete converters because each one has a different plug and will only fit a specific device. Standardize the converters.

Today's haul:

1. A floppy disc
2. A key fob with two compasses
3. A triple-header hiliter from the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company
4. A converter
5. A paper mache vase made by one of our children 10 years ago
6. A bicycle lock key
7. A magnifying top to a plastic box
8. A plastic bullet
9. A plastic plug for something
10. A cigar journal

I don't think I'll need to look outside my home office for quite a while. there is a lot of junk here!

War on Junk - Day 3

I see some other members of the family have tentatively joined in. There was some junk that I didn't recognize when I looked in the box today - Except my 10 lb barbell, formerly one of a pair. How does a 10lb barbell disappear?

Today's haul includes:

1. A telephone cable in a plastic bag
2. A 10 lb barbell
3. A music box/christmas decoration that looks like a miniature record player
4. A brand new cordless phone, still in the box
5. A very interesting and complicated plastic device that may have something to do with wine, or maybe not
6. A cork from a bottle of Aberlour 10 year old scotch whisky
7. A device for smoothing the goop from a vinyl repair kit
8. Some aluminum measuring spoons
9. A plastic vial containing fool's gold from a 'gold panning' exhibition at Old Tucson Arizona
10.A scarf

We have removed thirty items from their former hiding places so far. It hasn't even made a dent. Junk is legion but we are determined.

War on Junk - Day 2

I told my mother-in-law about my war on junk. She was so happy and said "I,ve been waiting to hear that for thirty years!" She is very neat person. She will help us every week when we sort out the week's collection for recycling etc. My family is reluctantly going along with this idea, I'm sure they think it's just a phase. Maybe they are right, time will tell.

Here's today's list of junk.

1. A plastic divider box from the medicine cabinet
2. A small zip lock bag containing $0.22 (1 dime, 1 nickel and 7 pennies)
3. A black poker chip
4. A white poker chip
5. An obsolete computer back-up tape
6. An Allen Key
7. Another Allen Key
8. A Sony Walkman
9. Instruction manual for A Radio Shack Universal remote
10. A ball point pen with no ink

There is so much stuff, I feel like I could do this forever and not make a dent. Of course it is not a static process. Everyday, new junk worms it's way into our house from various sources, so we are not really netting out at -10 pieces per day. Junk is a clever foe, a master of disguises. It often shows up as part of something useful and then hides in the clutter for years after its usefulness has ended.

I Declare War on Junk!

The Lee Homer Household declares War on Junk!

Ok, so here's the deal. We have too much stuff. A lot of it is garbage masquerading as something you might use someday or hiding among useful items. Much of it has been there for years, malevolently cluttering up our lives in a sneaky manner. Hey, - I'm not doing anything, I'm just a piece of junk sitting in your closet that you are never going to use - what's the harm? Or Hey, we're just a bunch of useless items festering in your drawers and getting in the way of finding the few things we actually need and use.

Well it's no more Mr. and Mrs. Nice Guy. Our family is declaring war on junk. It's either us or the junk and at this point the junk is getting the upper hand!

Today is day one and our goal is to get rid of 10 pieces of junk per day. There is so much of it that at this point it takes less than 5 minutes to identify offending detritus.

Once identified they will be placed in a holding area (a superfluous tote) and once a week be sorted into 3 piles:

1. Garbage - unredeemable junk
2. Recyclable
3. Stuff to give away.

If we do this for a year, we will have eliminated 3,650 useless items from our lives and be all the better for it.

Today's haul:

1. Old baseball glove
2. Old 3 ring binder
3. metal pen box
4. Obsolete Name Tag
5. Plastic bag of Screws
6. Unidentified plastic thingamabob
7. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
8. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
9. 3 Christmas lights
10. Canuck's Rubik's cube
Labels: de-clutter, junk, recycling