for sale

I have been reluctant to get to this for a long time now: the placing of clutter up for sale. Junk is easy to stick in a trash can. More useful stuff -- discarded clothing, household items -- that, too, you can clear away with donations to Goodwill or other nonprofits. But there is this next layer of stuff -- lamps you no longer need, old cameras that once seemed so brilliant and now are merely old technology, a coffee maker because you no longer drink filtered coffee, the fat suitcase because you no longer travel with a big load.

Ed has been hinting and then out and out nagging for me to Craigslist it all and today we sat down to do just that.

It was at once pathetic (you think anyone would buy that?), silly (honestly?), funny (let's call it "minimalist"), tedious (measure that messenger bag carefully!) and most of all --  time consuming. We spend the entire day photographing, describing and finally listing some fifteen items.

And the phone has yet to ring.

Still, if ever we are in agreement, it is over this: the farmhouse is much improved by the elimination of stuff.

Before all this, there was, of course, breakfast. A bit fast and a little edgy.






Surely the distressing weather of rain, sleet and thunder could have contributed to the tenor of conversation. Just to give you a feel for it:
...Is what you said true?
I wont answer that.
Why not?
Because it's a dumb question.
No it's not. Is it true?
Yes.
Are you sure?
See? You don't really believe it anyway. No answer is satisfactory.

And so on.


But as we attacked my clutter (two lamps, people, I have two lamps, one backpack, one messenger bag and one suitcase for sale! And more, there's more!) the mood brightened. It feels good to offload stuff. Or at least to begin the process of offloading stuff.
So I have to respond to calls as you go off on your travels?
You could travel with me instead...
I'll just tell them I don't know anything about any of it and they can just look and decide...
That's another way to proceed...


And the outdoors? Did we take it in at all today? Well, the weather stayed on the bad side of awful, to be made worse this weekend as we prepare ourselves for -- guess what? Another polar vortex!

Isis, on the other hand, presented a more chipper story:  that dear boy found a new love -- my smashed tail bone cushion. It's a good thing that I don't need it so much anymore.





Finally -- the evening meal: I ate it with my work neighbors and friends -- half of them retired, half still chuggin' along. Me, I'm thinking how really lucky I am to have had a whole day with nothing more pressing to do then to post clutter for sale.