You Don't HAVE to Save Everything

A couple  years ago, Carole went to Boston for St. Patrick's Day. She sent me tea which is just like the kind the colonists dumped into Boston Harbor. I finally used up that tea earlier this week. It was a loose variety and I only make it at home, preferring bags for the office. So, loose tea lasts me much longer than bagged.

I was left with the tin.

It's a nice tin. The lid actually snaps shut and, when knocked onto the floor (not that I would have conducted this experiment *cough), doesn't flop open. It would be a nice little tin for storing things. Therein lies the problem. What do I have that could benefit from storage in a small tin like this with a good fitting lid?

I started at it. I left it on the counter, open, for three days. I washed it out and let it air dry. It screams, "Save me! Use me! I'm ever so versatile!"

In another phase of life, I would have added this to the stash in the basement without even thinking. A tin with a good closing lid, of course it will have a use, some day. In this phase of my life, a tin with a good fitting lid that doesn't have an immediate use will become just another item festooned with dust and cobwebs on the shelf in the basement. I tossed it into the recycling bin.

Now, I realize some of my readers are aghast that I would, so casually, toss out a metal tin with a good closing lid. If you really want it, you can have it but you'll have to reimburse me the shipping. While light-weight, I'm going to have to box it to ship. It's not like the pair of scissors I gave away before which could be slipped into a padded envelope. I think, in the recycling bin, I even have a box which I could use. The recycling goes to the curb next Wednesday evening.

This marks a clear departure for me. Reuse and recycle are part and parcel of how I was raised. You don't toss useful items. But I have reached a point in my life where I have to critically evaluate "useful". I want to pare down what I have so everything in the house is of use. I have a serious cleaning project I want to start this weekend. It's part of reinventing how I feel about myself and my life, now that my path has changed. I just can't save everything, no matter how much value I can see in something. Thankfully, I can toss this into the recycling bin and it will get reused.

I felt no remorse about dropping it into the bin. In the past I would have agonized, probably, ultimately adding it to the stuff on the shelves in the basement. Nope. It was as natural an act as recycling the cereal boxes on the counter next to it. Maybe, in some week's time, I'll have that remorse that I got rid of this when I find I could use it to store "x", but that's the way it goes. In finishing off this tea, I now have room on the window sill for several of the kinds Amber gave me for Christmas. I'm looking forward to new tastes.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb