Nothing to Spend, No Place to Spend It: Look, and look again (Archives post)

First posted May 2016, slightly edited

Sometimes we forget that one reason for decluttering is so we can appreciate the things we do keep.

What books do you already have on the shelf? Have you read the ones you downloaded to your Kindle app last year, or the year before? I just finished one of my long-time Kindle-sitters, at 10,000 feet, because the crossword puzzle book I'd brought was excruciatingly boring, and the airplane WiFi wasn't free. Of course looking out the window at the clouds is free, but I wasn't right by a window, and where I could sort of see out, people kept closing the shades. So, the downloaded books came in handy.

What do you have in your jewelry box? I have a necklace with a green pendant that Mr. Fixit gave me some time ago. I cleaned out my box this spring, got rid of the non-keepers, put a few special but unwearable things away, and that left the things I liked but hadn't been wearing, like the green necklace. So now it's where I can grab it easily and put it on.

What do you have hidden in your china cupboard? A pottery dish? Candles? Fancy bowls? We are paper napkin users, by and large, although we do have a stash of homemade cloth napkins we use as well. Sometimes the stack of paper napkins sits right on the kitchen table, which is not attractive. Sometimes they sit in a basket, which is better. Today I pulled out a vintage tin box and slipped the napkins into that, just for a change. Better to use things than to hide them away.

I just finished reading a book that my daughter loaned me. In the story, one character had a special celebration, and two other people decided to commemorate it by giving him a trading card of his favourite Japanese baseball player, Yutaka Enatsu This was not easy to accomplish, because the man already owned most of the early Enatsu cards, but for reasons too complicated to explain here he lived largely in the past, and might not be able to handle it if he found out that Enatsu was later traded to another team. The searchers did, through a few strokes of luck, come up with a card that fit the bill, and the giving and the receiving was everything they hoped for. One little coloured piece of cardboard, but chosen with love, and treasured.

Enjoy your small treasures for the smiles they give.