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Make room! Make room!
Aug. 15th, 2004 07:59 pmThe problem is not that I have too much stuff.
The problem is that I have the *wrong* stuff.
I don't have any immediate use for those little cordura attache cases with shoulder straps, but I might conceivably use one if I wasn't carrying a backpack. (One. Where on earth did the others come from?) But I can't imagine wanting to carry an old-fashioned hard plastic briefcase. Is there a situation I would need such a thing, where the soft thing would be laughably inappropriate, and I'm just not aware of it?
The hard plastic briefcase contained 11 pieces of surprisingly flimsy blue plastic, shaped like paddles and labelled "IN CASE OF NIGHT RESCUE one surface of blade has been reflectorized. hold treated side of blade toward searchlight to show your location." It was cheap military surplus, $3/100, and it's possible to write on the "reflectorized" surface after the plastic breaks. But it doesn't justify keeping the briefcase. There must be a better place to put them. (And do I really want to keep 11 of them? They turn sweaty hands blue. And I have better things to giggle at.) Perhaps more to the point, they're clutter. And I'm unusually edgy about clutter these days, having seen it take over my mother's house. Though not this particular form of clutter, to be fair. Hers are mostly clothes, newspapers, weight-loss gadgetry, and anti-aging potions.
The problem is that I have the *wrong* stuff.
I don't have any immediate use for those little cordura attache cases with shoulder straps, but I might conceivably use one if I wasn't carrying a backpack. (One. Where on earth did the others come from?) But I can't imagine wanting to carry an old-fashioned hard plastic briefcase. Is there a situation I would need such a thing, where the soft thing would be laughably inappropriate, and I'm just not aware of it?
The hard plastic briefcase contained 11 pieces of surprisingly flimsy blue plastic, shaped like paddles and labelled "IN CASE OF NIGHT RESCUE one surface of blade has been reflectorized. hold treated side of blade toward searchlight to show your location." It was cheap military surplus, $3/100, and it's possible to write on the "reflectorized" surface after the plastic breaks. But it doesn't justify keeping the briefcase. There must be a better place to put them. (And do I really want to keep 11 of them? They turn sweaty hands blue. And I have better things to giggle at.) Perhaps more to the point, they're clutter. And I'm unusually edgy about clutter these days, having seen it take over my mother's house. Though not this particular form of clutter, to be fair. Hers are mostly clothes, newspapers, weight-loss gadgetry, and anti-aging potions.
