I’m still Jeffty from the block.
We have a house now to fill with our very own consumer goods. Among the wedding gifts we are bringing out of storage and sorting through: two George Foreman grills, two sizes of crock pot, nine thousand plates (approximation), and two irons, in addition to the perfectly usable iron I brought to this union.*
So with three irons and zero couches, we’re trying to figure out how to live well. And by "well" I mean comfortably, but without stagnation.
I already had a set of pots. And flatware. And glasses. Our new kitchen is small and in Philadelphia, which means it was built at least 80 years ago, when apparently no one stored anything in their houses. So. We'll find good homes for the surplus of course, but why did we ask friends and relatives to buy new things when we already had good enough things?
I know how to spiritually and fiscally reconcile a new book or game. I don't know how to do that with a new dinette set. Marriage ratchets up the complexity of this calculus, when my wife wants a thing and I'm not even sure it's a good idea to have arranged atoms into that particular shape, much less to trade money for it. I’ve never even felt entirely convinced that a "house" was the best thing. Birds have nests and foxes have holes, dig? As long as I lived in an apartment, or with friends, I felt mobile enough. Now... now what?Now I guess we need to find some people to love with this thing.
*Ironic: Neither one of us irons our clothes.**
**Also, punny.
3 comments:
JQu - That's a clever title. Do you just think of these things naturally, or did you actually sit and ponder that one. Impressive, nonetheless. I'm oh-so-familiar with your stuff dilemma. My hubby and I had more than we needed when we got hitched. We had 3 kitchen tables, 2 couches (1 a HUGE bright blue sectional), several big fishtanks, lots of dishes and glasses, and Christmas dishes, too. In the end, friends and family convinced us to have a shower and we got some cool things. The thing is, many of us (myself included) like to show love by buying stuff. It's hard-wired into through years of reinforcement, and it's often useful. But... knowing when to say when is tricky. I don't think we shouldn't have stuff just because we don't need it, but we shouldn't have stuff we don't use. So congrats on trying to pare down to the stuff you use...
Huh. Foreman Grills must be the new toaster oven...we got three for our shindig, along with a couple of coffee pots. While one toaster oven *was* on the registry I never did figure out the coffee pots. Neither one of us consume the vile concotion, but I guess the old folks who gave them to us can't conceive of that sort of thing.
Have fun sorting and moving in. Maybe we'll see you at the Brown-stein event in a couple of months.
Irons make good bookends. I, too, appreciate your accumulatory dilemma. I've started trying to purchase previously owned things as a way to deal with it. Of course, previously owned couches often need repair/recovering/defunkifying.
Our focus after the wedding was on the presents gifted by crazy Southern aunts. When we got married (in the 90s), among the gifts we received was a precursor to the Foreman grill, a Joe Namoth-endorsed hamburger patty griddle (in its original packaging) and a two-foot tall brass candlestick (one). I'm not sure what one does with a candlestick of this size, but I'm rather fond of it in a "useless possession I don't know what to do with" kind of way.
-deandra
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