It’s clean-up week in our town this week. Where does all this stuff come from? As I drive down street after street, I am amazed at the amount of broken and junked up stuff that people have kept. I kind of feel like this week is the physical representation of all that is wrong with the United States—gluttony, waste, and an inability to reuse.
There have been some years where I have had a significant pile of stuff to throw out—the bedroom carpet that my dog conveniently ruined as a puppy, some closet doors, a few old windows, some plastic tubs we no longer needed, etc. This year, we have the two particleboard sides of an old bookshelf. The actual white, plywood shelves are not on the boulevard because we re-used them in my son’s room as floating shelves. All we needed was two brackets per shelf, and he had a wall of really interesting shelves to replace the broken bookcase.
There is also a broken single-room humidifier. Simply stopped working, and we don’t have a way to fix it. We also put out two lamps, but those have already been picked up by “shoppers.” I am so glad for that since, while they both needed some work, they were in working order.
I guess I could try to spin this week into something more positive. Rather than seeing the gluttony of the people throwing everything out, what about the shoppers?
My husband, who is not American, is horrified by this concept of shopping on boulevards. He feels like it is an admission of homelessness. The idea that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure is lost on him. One year, I was walking my son to school and came across a double fold-out canvas beach chair. I dropped him off at school, walked home, got my car, drove over and picked that up off the boulevard. We had that little double chair for years and got a lot of use out of it. I can only assume that the family who put it out upgraded to something better. I was very happy for that treasure.
I actually am both attracted to and repulsed by this week. I drive past mounds of junk and find myself wondering if I couldn’t use that basket or mirror while also being amazed/disgusted that people have all this stuff in their homes, just waiting for this single week of the year. What is the matter with us that we accumulate so much stuff? Why would that family have needed to upgrade to different summer chairs when the ones I took were in perfect condition? Why did I get rid of two lamps that needed some simple work to be in perfect working order?
We are a country of consumerism, and it’s never more apparent than during this week of clean-up. I pride myself on having little to nothing to put out on our boulevard AND to not stopping and shopping at every pile that catches my eye. Not an easy task on either count.
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