In the summer of 1975 I got a job in a factory that made cardboard Halloween skeletons. My job was to rivet the legs and arms onto the skeletal torso. As the parts came down a conveyor belt, I would grab them furtively and rivet. Then an arm and then a leg and then an […]
Entries Tagged as 'Excess of Possessions'
The seamy underbelly of Halloween decor
October 12th, 2013 · No Comments · Consumer Issues, Decoration Industry, Disposability, Excess of Possessions, Manufacturing
Tags:cheaply made goods·decorations·environmental toxins·Halloween·Halloween skeletons·holiday decorations·non-recyclables·party products·polystyrene·saving stuff·seasonal decorations·Styrofoam·too much stuff·toxic waste
Avoiding pesky labor laws by sending work abroad
June 24th, 2013 · No Comments · Consumer Issues, Excess of Possessions, Manufacturing, Philosophy, Polystyrene
What was I saying last time? Oh yes — we send our Styrofoam to China and they make it into cheaper plastic products. So what’s wrong with that? If China can recycle polystyrene into a more inert kind of plastic that isn’t going to be breaking up into little particles and flying all over the place, […]
Grandma: not so crazy after all
May 29th, 2013 · No Comments · Excess of Possessions, Hoarding, Re-using, The Packrat Mind
In the Depression years, our grandparents saw need all around them, and probably found constant satisfaction in having saved just the right thing. In the last few years of my grandmother’s life, we sent for the items she pined for in the storage unit in New Mexico so that she could at last be reunited […]
Tags:ancestors·inheriting junk·packrat mentality·re-using·reusing·saving stuff
Persistent Pen Envy
April 5th, 2013 · 4 Comments · Collecting, Excess of Possessions
Are you sick of the pen topic? I know I am. I still want them, though. New pens, vintage pens, other people’s pens…… but I’m not giving in these days. I just drool inwardly and keep moving. I’m looking for a good pen therapist. because as I’m getting rid of all these pens — which […]
From whence the drive to collect?
March 14th, 2013 · No Comments · Collecting, Excess of Possessions, Hoarding, Packratting, Philosophy, The Packrat Mind
I admit i have a bit of a “thing” about collecting. There’s a-whole-nother category that lies somewhere between packratness and hoarderliness, and I’m in it. The people in this category are called “collectors” instead of packrats or hoarders because they collect things in a systematic, purposeful and orderly way, display their collections in a proud […]
Tags:collecting·hoarding·packrat mentality·saving stuff·too much stuff
Pen-Pigs Anonymous
February 4th, 2013 · No Comments · Collecting, Excess of Possessions, Packratting
It’s really bad. I might have to start going to meetings. “Hello. My name is Kate and I am a pen-pig,” I would start out. (You have to introduce yourself in the correct way.) “Hi, Kate!” they would chime in unison. Then I’d tell the following little story of hope. It happened the other day […]
The invasion of the vacuum cleaner parts
January 13th, 2013 · No Comments · Excess of Possessions, Passing it on
While everyone at one time or another has encountered the unsolved mystery of sock loss, far fewer are aware of the much lesser known phenomenon of the rampant proliferation of vacuum cleaner attachments. In this treatise, we will explore existing theories regarding vacuum cleaner attachment reproduction; the origins of said theories; the behavioral patterns of humans […]
Weeding books: how I do it
January 10th, 2013 · No Comments · Excess of Possessions, Recycling
What I’m keeping: two kinds. 1. Books I haven’t read yet and still want to read. 2. Books I’ve read and loved so much that I actually open them up periodically and read over my favorite parts. What I’m not keeping: everything else. 1. Nay to books that have been sitting on my shelf without […]
A few words about books
January 4th, 2013 · No Comments · Excess of Possessions, Philosophy
Ah, books! — for some of us the hardest thing to part with. Book collecting is the most excused area of hoarding, often confused with intellectual prowess. But it’s still hoarding. Remember that Umberto Eco book that was so popular, called The Name of the Rose? The one he wrote following that, Foucault’s Pendulum, was…. […]