When in doubt, don’t throw it out ~ July 24, 2003

David Heiller

“You’re not throwing that Plexiglas away are you?” Cindy asked on Sunday evening.

The thick piece of plastic had come from a hockey rink, where it had served as protection for fans from flying pucks. This one about 16 inches by 26 inches, give or take a few cracks and holes

It had sat unused in the garage for about 10 years, and now it was leaning against the garbage can, waiting for a trip to the landfill.

We moved our stuff, pick-up load at a time down to Brownsville.

But hold on there, Cindy was saying. That could come in handy, couldn’t it? You never know when you can use a piece of Plexiglas from a hockey rink.

The scary part was that I had been thinking the same thing. So with a mixture of guilt and relief, I carried it back to the garage.

It illustrates what is going on in our lives these days as we pack up 22 years of belongings. My old Test of Time standard is itself being severely tested. It states that if I haven’t used something in a couple years, out it goes.

The old "garage" was never really a garage...
 but it held a lot of "stuff".

Dilemmas are bombarding us. Do I need a box of old purses and bags? Geez, they could come in handy at some point. They are perfectly good. They could hold something.

What about that box of hats? I had a full head of hair the last time I wore most of them. But wait, that one is kind of debonair. I wore it to work once, and only a few people snickered. And that other one, I got while I was in the Peace Corps. I bonded with that hat!

Here’s a box of dishes that were put in the garage when we moved here from Stewartville in 1981. We had them before we were married. I remember those dishes. They’re kind of pretty, and they are still in fine shape. Keep them!

That Army duffel bag was my dad’s in World War II. Now it is stuffed with a bean bag chair. Noah used it as a blocking dummy in his football years. It’s a family heirloom.

That spare blender? You never know when the one in the house will break.

Those boxes of papers, letters, Christmas cards, photos, and college term papers? Some treasures are no doubt buried in their midst. I’d hate to accidentally lose something valuable.

Then there’s that cordwood saw. I promised I’d sell it to Tim. I hadn’t used it for so long, and we are moving, so why haul it 250 miles? He was going to come over on Monday evening to get it.

We built a pole shed. We actually kept cars,
truck and tractor there. It, too, had to be emptied.

I fired it up on Sunday night, to cut up a pile of old boards. It took only half a dozen pulls for it to kick into action, after a couple years of dormancy. Good old 12 horse power engine: As the circular blade sliced through board after board, I thought, “I can’t sell this!”

I broke the news to Cindy, and the scary part was, she agreed. Quid pro quo.

I have thrown a lot of things away, and taken some other things to Bruno Thrift Store. But it seems like my old saying of “When in doubt, throw it out” is under revision in these uncharted waters of moving.

Our garage and home up north are slowly being emptied, and the garage and barn down south are steadily filling up, with boxes of stuff that may very well remain in their cardboard coffins for another 22 years.