Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Operation Knick-Knack Attack

Last night, I was home earlier than usual with nothing to do. Since my roommate Ern has been in Argentina for the month, I’ve had to break out of my normal Monday and Tuesday night routine of hanging out at the apartment and drinking too much wine. Such activities are fun with a friend, but frowned upon when alone. And since I already live on the outskirts of my means, I probably shouldn’t be going out and spending money. I decided to do something productive- clean my room! Not just a make the bed and pick up the dirty laundry clean, this was an all-out, pull everything off the shelves, break out the cleaning products clean. As I was clearing off my bureau top, it occurred to me that I have a shitload of knick-knacks. Trinkets. You know, ceramic figurines, tiny decorative boxes, and whatnot. I don’t even like them. I don’t know how I’ve managed to accumulate so many useless items, and I have no idea why I originally brought them to this apartment when I moved in. Or why I’ve kept them for the years that I’ve spent here. Yet, part of me is reluctant to get rid of them. These knick-knacks have two origins. Half of them I collected when I was a small girl, enthralled with items such as a creamer in the form of a small cat. Tacky, pointless junk, but still, I’ve had them for soooo long, it is hard to part with them. The other half are gifts, primarily from the two demographics whom I have identified as The World’s Top Lovers of Knick-Knacks:

1. Nicaraguans
2. My mother

It just seems so rude and ungrateful to get rid of a gift, no matter how much it clashes with your own personal style. However, enough is enough. How long am I going to keep lugging around a box of trinkets that I don’t even like, only to pull them out and display them on unoccupied flat surfaces? Nevermore, that’s your answer! During the cleaning process, I had already packed up a bag of old clothes to bring to Goodwill, and I rounded up all of the offending knick-knacks and threw them in as well. Goodbye, ye little dish with a dove perched upon it! Fare thee well, miniature wooden giraffe! And you, ceramic cat hugging a ceramic mouse wearing a sweater, may you happily gather dust upon someone else’s shelf.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Eileen! Doesn't it feel good to get rid of clutter? I read a book called Clutter's Last Stand and they recommend taking pictures of stuff and putting them in an album before you toss it so you don't feel as bad getting rid of gifts or mementos.

Sue said...

Nice work cleaning, Eileen! And next time you want to get out of your house and have some wine... head down the street to our house, where you will never drink alone. ;)

eileen said...

Oooh, I'm totally going to line them all up and take a picture before I drop them off.

Anonymous said...

I bet that would make for one odd picture! I read that idea somewhere too and I think it's a good one.

jay said...

Getting rid of collectables?!?!?! Never! I just store all my stuff in the attic in those giant tuperware like bins..

Kevin said...

Hey, where's the picture of the alligator arm ashtray? You HAVE to include that one on the blog. Viva recuerdos de Nicaragua!

Mike said...

You got rid of a miniature wooden giraffe!? Preposterous!