Piece by piece

a Super Mario Kart lenticular puzzle

For the last few days I've been rearranging the bunch of stuff that is known as boxes in my apartment. Primarily to make room for doing photography indoors while the weather is cold and snowy outside. People that know me know that this is no minor task as it involves moving some boxes of laserdiscs and other boxes of junk that I've been hording for years.

Some may think the term "Pack Rat" but I'm more fond of the "Saver" label. While they mean the same thing in the end the later seems nicer. Here are the pros and cons of going through stuff.

pros

1. You can finally let go of that version of C++ that's been outdated 4 versions ago, 3 versions ago, and 2 versions ago, etc...


2. That's what happened to my (Commodore Pin, Amiga Pin, Back to the Future sunglasses, you get the idea)!


3. You can make your pile of junk smaller if you can let go of stuff.


4. You can find other people's stuff and return it to them. (Robin, I think I found some knitting book of yours, only re-misplaced it by putting it in another box.)


5. There are those that say that if you let go of things you create space for more things or new things to enter your life. Why get rid of the stuff to start it all over again in a few years?
   


6. Less storage space required. Which also means that maybe you might have more space to actually live in.

cons

1. Less stuff also means increased heating and or cooling bills. It's more cost effective to keep solids cold than empty space. This tip works for the refrigerator too.


2. You find things you haven't seen in a while and maybe didn't want to see.
• Thesis notes - Wow! That's my writing? Geez, I was smart! What happened?
• Mold - for example. I have not found mold, just sayin'.
• Photos - of you doing something dumb and/or geeky when your were less fat.


3. Sifting through the junk creates reminiscing which means more time sifting.


4. You wonder why you've been schlepping this stuff around all these years.


5. You find something you haven't fiddled with in years and now find yourself fiddling with that item taking more time to sift.

I found a few lenticular puzzles I had bought at a book sale a while back. The puzzles were only 100 pieces each but were still a good distraction. Instead I could have been working on clearing out stuff.