Will I ever use it again?

[Eamonn]

We had hoped to have sold our house and have moved some time last spring. Her Who Must Be Obeyed, packed boxes and sorted through clothes.

Bags and bags of clothes went to goodwill. I swear that every person who visits a Goodwill store for the next ten years will come out wearing one of my sweaters.

Her Who Must Be Obeyed, hates to shop. To her the word Mall, is a four letter word. Me I love to shop and buy stuff. At times I do buy stuff that I don't really need but I like and like it more if it is on sale.

Her That Must Be Obeyed, tells me that I'm a pack rat.

While we thought that the sale of the house was pending, we didn't do some of the stuff that needed doing, thinking that the new owner would want to redo it any way. When it comes to doing stuff around the house, I can do it but find lots of reasons (excuses?) not to do it. Top of my list of things not to do is painting. I hate to paint.Six years ago I painted our kitchen and living rooms, it took me three weeks. The rooms are big!!

Her That Must Be Obeyed, got a bug and before I knew it had called a painter to come and give us a quote. I may love to shop but at heart I am a classic "El Cheapo". In preparation for the quote Her That Must Be Obeyed, laid the ground work, telling me that when her best friend had a paint job done it cost $1,000.00. And their rooms were no where near as big as ours. I was thinking that a thousand bucks is a lot of money. She told me about how bad my back is, and how she didn't want the house turned upside down for a month. She was good.

The Painter Guy arrived, looked around for a few minutes and quoted $350.00 if I supplied the paint.I was taken back and showed him how high the ceiling is in the entry way and told him that six years ago I had to rent a scaffold to do it. I made sure that he knew that there is a passage off the kitchen. He however was firm I was unable to get him to increase the cost. So I agreed to pay the $350.00. I asked when he could start he said how about tomorrow? I asked how long did he think it would take him and he said about a day. My pride was hurt.

He did come the next day and it took him a day and a half.

Her That Must Be Obeyed had bought me a new desk for Christmas. We hadn't put it together because we were moving. Still She thought that now would be a good time to change desks. I took my computer to the store and had a new hard drive put in and a few other bits added. The painter left. He did a good job Not as good as I would have done, but he used a lot less paint.

The new desk was assembled the computer was back in working order. But there was the old desk. The drawers were full of Boy Scout bits!! Patches from Pow Wows, Camporees, wood Badge courses. Photos of people that maybe I used to know. We also changed from two small, two drawer file cabinets to one. There are big file cabinets in another room which houses more Scout stuff then what we have in our Council Scout Shop. There were papers with Scoutmasters minutes which I had kept. Programs from Blue and Gold Banquets, one from 1975!! I have no idea who I got it. I didn't even visit the USA until 1977.

Under the watchful eye of Her That Must Be Obeyed stuff was looked at as she sat with garbage bag in hand. Papers that I had collected at Philmont were disposed of. Photos of me handing out awards to Cub Scouts were looked at if we knew who the Cub Scout was and we knew where they lived we mailed them to the family.

In all we ended up with three black garbage bags of stuff. Many of the patches were added to those that live in the Tupperware boxes.

I have read of a document scanner, I will have to look into buying one.

I'm not sure if I am just lacking organization or if I really am a pack rat. Most times when people can't find something they know that I have it. It might take me a little while to find it. This is only because Her That Must Be Obeyed has moved it. This leads me to believe that everyone else is either more disorganized then I am? Or they just don't keep stuff the way I do.

I am starting to see that CD's are taking over. They find their way into my cars, my work briefcases, just about everywhere. Kind people burn copies of stuff for me and don't write anything on the CD or the case and I am left with all this great stuff that if I don't write what it is straight away, becomes useless.

How do you keep all of your Scouting "Treasures" in some sort of order? Do you have a Her or Him who must be obeyed that every now and then forces you into a big sort out?

Eamonn.

[cajuncody]

Eamonn,

I feel for you. DH ( that is Dear Husband on most days on others the D can be not so flattering) Decided that my office closet was too full. He cleaned it out. I now have a stack of wood projects on my desk that he told me to "Use it or lose it". Good thing I have a cub meeting tomorrow. Just the opposite of you however, I just went from a small 2 drawer file cabinet to a LARGE 5 drawer. I now get an entire drawer for Cub stuff.

Clutter is all in the eye of the beholder. According to DH I am a clutter queen and a pack rat. However, to everyone else I am a "neat freak". I can always put my hand on whatever DH wants so I don't understand his complaint. I do tend to keep everything though. ( I did finally toss all the photo negatives, with scanners today you don't really need them plus I have a digital now anyway.)

I say keep packing it away, you never know when you may need something again. The only time I can't find something is when DH has tossed it.

Cajun

[SR540Beaver]

E,

 

I have a twin brother. I am now wondering if we were not triplets and somehow you got separated from us at birth? I'm also wondering if our wives were separated at birth too? I have to hide the garbage bags from her.

[packsaddle]

The sign over my desk says, "A Clean Desk is a Sign of a Weak Mind". I guess that makes me a packrat as well. I can think of uses for every bit of it (and all the duplicates, too).

[SR540Beaver]

Pack,

 

Duplicates? What are you, a light weight?

[packsaddle]

Uh oh, I fear that the Beav' saw through me.