It wasn’t really lost, but is was lost-ish. I had a lot of plans for the day since this is probably the only reasonably cool day we are getting this week. But then Owen said, “Hey, I moved that cabinet where you wanted it.”
“Oh great,” I said. It’s a glass doored cabinet and it had become empty after we moved our DVDs and CDs into a different cabinet and I have a lot of pottery — Native American, Antique Chinese porcelain, modern — and other collectibles including Robbie the Robot.
Each time I picked up a piece from a shelf, I had to wash and dry it. Except for the Chinese pieces that are really very old. You can’t wash them because the dirt in them is part of the how they can be identified. So I sort of dust them very gently and carefully put them back on their shelves.
So then we moved the big cabinet to where we had another small table. That table became Garry’s new table and Garry table moved into the bathroom where it matches the rest of the furniture.
In the course of reorganizing this stuff, I can’t count how many chargers, wires and watches we rediscovered. All the watches need batteries and I’m not even sure if the kiosk where we used to get our batteries replaced still exists because we haven’t been to a mall since COVID.
The result? It looks cleaner and less cluttered. Other result? I didn’t get anything done. I did process a lot of pictures yesterday which is good because today was not so much a wash-out as a wash-up (good pun there, eh?).
Does anyone needs an Amazon charger? I think we have a couple of dozen. How about wires? What combo do you needs? C to C? C to mini? C to standard? Standard to standard? How about video cables and connections for headphones? How about headphones? I must have a have a dozen of them in various sizes. I never use them because they press my glasses against my ears and it hurts, but Garry uses a couple of them, so that’s something.
And what do you do with a super cheap Chromebook that no one uses anymore? Do you save it? Will if ever be a better computer than it is right now? How about the Echo Dot> It was one of the first and you know you’ll never use it again. Trash? I don’t think the recyclers will take it.
Oh the sneaky temptation to keep it even though you haven’t used it in years and know you will never use it. I think I’ve got half a dozen Kindles I know I’ll never use. They are old and don’t have enough memory. Should I give up Kindles and use my Mac Airbook for listening — or buy a bigger, badder, Kindle?
When will I find the courage to toss those Kindles? I can’t give them away. No one wants them. What a tragic end. These devices enter our lives in glory and die in shame, trashed and worthless. I hate throwing them away. They ought to be revivable.
Maybe that’s really what this is all about. Trash. There is so much of it and we didn’t get any of it for free. We PAID for that trash. In many case, quite a lot of money. Every time I throw away a piece of previously expensive electronics, I feel four emotions:
- I’m throwing my money in the trash
- What a waste
- There is far too much trash and some of it is mine
- Shame on me.
Share this:
Categories: #Photography, #Pottery, Anecdote, antiques, House and home, housework, recycling, trash
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Love your Sui musicians. And the gorgeous Han pot.
LikeLike
I love those Sui musicians – what a special piece! And you didn’t get nothing done, you just got something different done 😀
Do you not have recycling schemes for old electronics there? We have places you can send them and be paid for doing so. They get restored and resold or taken apart for spare parts. Like this: https://www.fonebank.com/
LikeLike
It depends on which electronics. I’ve always been able to rehome the good stuff, but small stuff like little tablets? I’m recycling ONE of my spare Kindles with Amazon. I have two more: the one I use and the one Owen uses. I’ll recycle the one I’m currently using when I get the new one and if Owen isn’t using the one he has, I’ll send them that, too.
I talked to Garry and he said since audiobooks are my primary source of entertainment, it would be pointless not to get a new one. I just hope the new one works because this older one — it’s just under 2 years old, mind you, though it has been heavily used — seems to have given up the fight to locate books in my collection. I archived a lot of old ones last night, but that’s a pittance out of the nearly 1600 volumes I’ve got in Amazon’s cloud.
The new one has a 4 gig “hard drive” and 64 RAM and I’m adding an extra 64 gigs via a mini CD card. Supposedly this one is faster and stronger. I sure HOPE so. I’ve been having a hard time getting the older one to work at all. It’s got so many issues. I keep trying to fix it, but it gets worse every time I try to delete a finished book and add a new one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In Seattle the UW had a special place to deposit all the spare/useless/ extra electronic stuff and wires. Maybe there’s a place near you too
LikeLike
There might be a place in Boston, but that’s not nearby at all. It’s a LONG drive. When I get the new Kindle I’ll send back an old one and I’ve got two more to recycle. I just need to get the new one working before I get rid of the others. If you live in or near a city, this stuff is easier. When you live in the country, it’s complicated and sometimes, impossible.
The Chromebook is useless. No one will take it. It was a bad purchase.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it’s easier in the city.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely hate wasting stuff like that but you are right people don’t want it. We have a recycling system for mobile phones and some other electronic stuff I think but I don’t know about Kindles. I only have one, my first one which still works fine. Every time I think that maybe I’d like a new one I think “but your old one still works”. I probably won’t buy another till it dies.
I still have my old desktop computer and if I do update my laptop I don’t know what I’ll do with the old one. There is a possibility that if I could securely wipe all the info from it an Op Shop might take it. The big ones are really fussy about what they will take. The other option would be the local neighbourhood FB group. People often give away stuff on that or sell it.
I can’t just throw that stuff in the trash.
Naomi took a bunch of books around to the local Little Library. We still have loads and are thinking of starting our own.
LikeLike
Don’t buy a new one until the old one gives up the ghost. I had one that worked for five years and never had any problems. This one is not even 2 years old yet and it’s a mess. Part of it is the “restructuring” Amazon did on its system. It worked fine until (sigh) they fixed it.
Often the place from which you buy a new laptop will take the old one for recycling. Sometimes they even pay you for it. I know Apple does it and Amazon will do it for almost all their electronics — but not the chromebook which no one wants. But they will happily take back the kindles and pay me $60 for each one I return — which is actually more than I paid for a couple of them.
LikeLike
It used to be that you could return unused Kendles to Amazon — I’m not sure if they refunded anything for them, or if it was a way to recycle the outsides, or what. Failing that, we would have to take electronics to the Hazardous Waste station to turn them in — it’s illegal toput them in the trash!
LikeLike
They still take them back and (it turns out) the repayment is pretty good. Of the three I’m sending back (in stages), two are essentially new, I don’t think we ever used them. The one I’ve been using all the time also is in great condition, not counting its inability to DO anything useful. It LOOKS great.
LikeLike