provisionally discarded material objects

[melannen]

Okay so there's this bag. Every time I tidy, there's always some STUFF left over that I don't know what to do with, and by that point I have decision fatigue, so I just put the remaining STUFF in the bag. Like a sourdough starter, it lingers, growing and shrinking but never quite empty.

Today I am going to empty the bag of STUFF, one way or another. And y'all lucky people are going to watch me liveblog it. :P


1. cardboard Hogwarts wall decoration
2. Really old travel-size box of kleenex
3. small nylon American flag
4. empty harmonica case
5. home-made Spink facemask
*6. 2 cloth lanyards that were free from work
7. deflector shield (for heating register) / used to replace a broken one on different heating register
8. Empty UMCP cookie tin
9. Thrift store reciept with outline for Dresden Files/dueSouth/Lizard Music/Boondocks/Howard Families/Young Wizards crossover on the back
10. Business card for my local SCA barony
11. bookmark with list of book sale dates on it
12. 2 pair ratty underpants
13. tie-dye instructions
*14. doll-sized sundress
15. Homemade spink cellphone cover
16. ~designer~ tissue paper
17. old baby blanket
*18. Red incandescent light bulb
19. clip for closing bag of bread
*20. blue cheerleader's pompom from the 1992 girl scout singalong (has it. has it been in the Bag of Stuff since 1992? I kind of fear it has.)
21. One knit glove
22. collector card protector
23. 2 maxi pads
24. 2014 Con.txt schedule
25. unbroken "break-your-own-geode"
26. bag of twisty balloons
*27. Empty metal Easter egg with a cross on it that once held candy
28. box of toothpicks
29. herbal heatpack from a pair of warming slippers (other one got washed and melted)
30. one more pair of ratty underwear (clean, needs to go in ragbag)
31. folding travel toothbrush
32. the small center block from a set of nesting blocks
33. pair of glasses with one earpiece missing
34. magnet from Mar-Lu-Ridge
35. pair of hole-y socks
36. white tissue paper
37. v. small ball of wool/spandex blend yarn
38. unused wallet
39. program from grandfather's funeral
40. vinyl-covered cardboard stiffener from bottom of totebag (?) that is currently being used to store a tent
41. Sponge
42. 2 thumbtacks (one of which I sat on)
43. the plastic fake memory card that came in my laptop's memory card slot
44. tag from some piece of embroidered 'fair trade' clothing that I bought at 70% clearance markdown (...at which point it probably doesn't count as fair trade anymore....)
45. plastic comb with 2 teeth missing
46. unopened bag of travel kleenex
47. draco malfoy action figure
48. worn-out cuff from an old hoodie (which i replaced with one knit from wool-spandex yarn mentioned above.)
49. set of pan-pipes made from drinking straws
50. green plastic... thing that says "spectra star" on it (possibly packaging from a kite?)
51. small plastic pipe-smoking monkey (that may have once been my grandmother's?)
52. Christmas-themed hairclip
53. plastic spoon (still in packaging) from fast-food place
54. travel pack of 'personal wipes'
55. empty Scotch tape roll
56. empty case for a GameBoy cartridge (I do not and never have owned a GameBoy)
57. vinyl window cling with flowers
58. wristband with a small mesh cage on it for carrying lightning bugs
59. bird made out of red pompoms and felt, glued to a clothespin (I have no memory of this)
60. hair elastic with bad elastic
61. Empty Red Rock Premium Cola bottle
*62. red-white-and-blue trumpet made out of recycled cans by deceased friend's husband during WWII as a Boy Scout
63. a shoelace tied to a small piece of dowel, with a purpose I probably knew at one point
*64. small plastic nun doll with arms that can grip onto things
65. long 1" strip of jersey knit fabric
*66. strip of burlap carpet edging with curtain-hanging pins every four inches (A failed attempt at a hat-storage solution)
67. an extremely large rhinestone button with the silver paint flaking off the backing
68. 2 otc elastic wrist braces
69. small shopping bag that folds up into a strawberry
*70. cloth bookmark shaped like a mouse
71. silver foil wrapping paper
72. small koala doll with clip-on arms
73. name-badge from con.txt 2012
74. Dejah Thoris action figure (minus head)
75. instructions + pack of sterile covers for medical thermometer
76. homemade cloth drawstring bag
*77. engraved metal Hedwig the Owl... thingy
78. rubber foot from, I think, shoe-rack I'm pretty sure I no longer own
79. leatherette glasses-cases full of cleaning cloths
80. 1 cloth work glove
81. set of Sluggy Freelance buttons + 1 Funky Winkerbean button
*82. single green balloon
83. large goose quill x 2
84. denim scraps from old skirt
85. cap from large water bottle
86. bulldog clip labelled "paid"
87. hot pink home-made pompom, origin unknown
88. pliers
89. more hole-y socks
90. homemade cardboard kumihimo disc
91. small maquette of Bone (from the comic Bone)
92. songbook from my dad's high school (?) no idea how this got into my stuff
93. elderly wi-fi card I was going to put in my old computer like five years ago, oops
*94. barbie-doll stand
95. stand for battery-operated fan
96. 2nd smallest block from nesting block set
97. commemorative buttons from the Estherville Meteorite
98. yet another free lanyard
99. glittery photo clip that says "live"
100. tube of chapstick
101. Jack O'Neill action figure (with no hands)
*102. Empty coconut
103. small Lincoln Logs piece


OK that just hit a hundred items, time to figure out what to do with those before I tackle more.

4:16: stuff that has a place where it goes is there; trash is in trashcan, toys are in toybox, things that are the missing bits of other things are in empty cookie tin, crafting-related-stuff is in drawstring bag, personal-care-related stuff is in strawberry bag, pile of stuff to donate on is in pile. which leaves me 16 things to make actual decisions on.

I think I will pull 84 more things out of bag first.


104. empty Sucrets tin
105. leatherette case containing an analog flight computer
106. quick reference weather forecasting card
107. small sparkly purple mesh drawstring bag
108. rubber pacifier pendant
109. afscme button
110. empty Ziplock bag
*111. small tin box, bought at yard sale, supposedly made by somebody's dad out of scrap while on active duty in WWII, with two of the solder joints broken
112. 6" square of cardstock
113. multi-tip screwdriver
*114. bronze singing bowl w/wooden mallet
*115. small candy dish made of melted AOL CD
116. honeystick
117. keychain made of plastic lacing
118. very old kids' safety scissors
119. small ball of white poly yarn
120. card saying food was given to the hungry in my honor
121. 3 more empty gameboy cases (I think the idea is I'd use these for sorting craft supplies or something?)
122. Envelope, containing:
123. stained-glass Christmas ornament
124. Tag off a skein of Alpaca yarn
125. stretchable Easter Bunny toy
126. doll dish from, uh, a strawberry shortcake set or something similar?
127. spirally no-tie shoelace
128. John Carter of Mars action figure (with head!)
129. small leatherette drawstring bag (with even tiner pocket inside)
130. hand-made transforming wire sphere toy
131. handle-frame-thingy from a craft organizer box
132. very beat up leather belt
133. wool tie-belt from a winter coat I *may* still own
134. 'burning bush' made of pipecleaners
135. key to unknown lock
136. lanyard-y thing still in plastic that says 'kodak', presumably meant for a camera
137. the plastic cover off the screen of my alarm clock
138. burlap drawstring bag full of assorted crafting scraps
*139. paper bag full of curtain-hanging hooks
*140. masonite tile painted with egg tempera I made myself at an SCA class
141. 50' steel tape measure
142. a small Strawberry Shortcake Apricot doll
143. a hard glasses case full of broken glasses
144. a small metal Slinky
*145. a leather wrist purse I made in elementary school
146. a bag full of random bits of embroidery thread
147. a linen codpiece
148. 8 assorted pens
149. a very old poseable rubber Brachiosaur toy
150. Harry Potter action figure to keep Draco company
151. Ten more assorted buttons/badges
152. another maxi pad
153. a washcloth in need of washing
154. another goose quill
155. cut pieces for stuffed spink dolls
156. plastic packaging from some sort of food?
157. two-and-a-half-year-old expired AAA card
158. map of Northwestern University with dragonfly doodles all over the back
159. plastic comb
160. three clothespins
161. more small fabric scraps
162. large plastic jar lid
163. the end off a poster-shipping roll (that may still be around here with posters in it. somewhere.)
164. temporary tattoos of an emerald ash-borer beetle and the Smithsonian Folkways logo
165. portable glasses repair kit
166. tube of Jolly Rancher chapstick
167. short string of gold pop-beads
168. the battery cover off my old mp3 player
169. another card protector minus card
170. a sticker with a tiger on it
171. another bread-bag clip
172. empty plastic name-badge holder pin
173. rubber bracelet covered in monkey faces
174. the spine off an old edition of Heidi's Children
175. the hilt/cap of a lightsaber pen
176. pair of nail scissors
177. pair of nail clippers
178. small packet of silica dessicant gel
179. instructions for different battery-operated fan
180. the decapitated head of my Wonder Woman USB drive
181. Apricot's hat
182. the fingertip of a leather glove
183. a brass button
184. a thing of dental floss
185. 4 pins with hidden chapstick compartments


...and at 5:24 that brings me back up to 100 objects that need dealt with, so I think there is going to be another round of putting away followed by dinner.

7:19 OK! Dinner eaten, 95k fanfic finished, previous batch of stuff put away (we are now up to 21 items in the "deal with later" pile, and the definitions of "crafts" for the crafting bag is.. drifting). Time to carry on! Yes! I can do this!


186. three full-size lightsabers (luke's, anakin's, and vader's)
187. a 1-liter glass IBC root beer bottle, sans lid
188. a "join the national guard" bookcover with the beginning of a genealogy of all Arthurian characters drawn on the back of it
189. a Narnia movie bookcover
190. the 2013 National Book Festival poster
191. an empty can of vanilla icing, dated June 2014
192. a half-full can of chocolate icing, dated June 2011. it has crystallized so I'm calling it a science project.
193. another maxi pad
194. the missing earpiece from those glasses
195. A piece of... wood... for some... reason
196. a Belgian chocolates tin containing a bunch of empty candy wrappers (not from Belgian chocolates)
197. a fancy box that once held an incredibly tacky keychain
198. two typewriter ribbons & an empty typewriter ribbon spool
199. two clarinet mouthpieces
200. a cassette tape from the 1991 National Storytelling Festival
201. Two pages from a mythical creatures stained glass coloring book, colored in crayon
202. a poster of Koko the Gorilla cuddling her kitten
203. an ant trap, empty
204. a rubber wedge insole
205. A plastic glow-in-the-dark Mars photo
206. a very crumpled paper Gardner dragon
207. another typewriter ribbon
208. another end off a poster-shipping tube
209. a foam sunglasses strap from back when they dorky instead of cool
210. a clarinet stand made by Dad
211. 2 more toothbrushes, unknown provenance
212. mostly-full tube of toothpaste
213. a round tin with Darth Vader on it that was once full of m&ms and is now full of old mix CDs
214. a Snuggle Bear Christmas tree ornament
215. a Big Bird fisher price person
216. a very small figure of Princess Leia on an Endor speeder bike
217. a baggy full of leftover nuts & bolts from a furniture assembly adventure
218. two lint rollers and a spare roll of sticky
219. a half-burned candle
220. a baggy of hardware that was once holding my dear departed closet door on
221. 4 Peanuts baseball cards
222. a cheap black & yellow checkered pocketknife
223. yet another maxi pad
224. a ticket to the 2014 State Fair
225. a light rail ticket
226. 2 unused heavy-duty pink glowsticks
227. a hickory nut
228. 6 more pens & pencils
229. a glow-in-the-dark crescent moon, broken into 3 pieces, 6 glow-in-the-dark stars, 2 glow-in-the-dark insects and a glow-in-the-dark UFO
230. the center from a roll of receipt paper
231. a pink ceramic conch shell
232. a punched-out cardboard thing with 70's blue & white stripes and what looks like windows printed on it that is probably part of some toy?
233. a small, ripped lithograph of a sailing ship
234. a magnet from the UMD dining halls reminding you to eat food
235. a bookmark from Howard's Books in Evanston IL
236. a post-it note with a reminder for an old staff meeting
237. somebody else's library reciept
238. a rubber band
239. another denim scrap
240. a disposable flosser
241. old elastic glasses strap w/bad elastic
242. the first two rounds of a naalbinded mitten
243. tip for a multi-tip screwdriver
244. a loop of kumihimo cord meant for cat's-cradles
245. a litho of palm trees, slightly less damaged
246. a Pringles can lid and a mason jar lid
247. a posable rubber Godzilla keychain (the original Godzilla, the cute one)
248. a sock with two eyes and a mouth drawn on it to be a puppet
249. a packet of dried-up personal wipes
250. a single dried rose petal (how poetic!)


an it's 8:30 at we're at 250 objects and the end is in sight! Time for another actually-put-stuff-away break.

...I think I may have to call it a night, because I am running out of both Can and Givadamn and I have to work tomorrow. :/ All that's left fits in one small shoebox? Not counting the Bag of Personal Care Stuff and the Bag of Crafting Stuff and the Tin of Missing Pieces and the thirty-three items in the 'O God I don't Know' pile but. it's a start? I feel like it's a start. I can finish tomorrow evening. yes. tomorrow. it's only a day away.

DAY 2:

251. Small string of Tibetan prayer flags
252. large bookmark that says "Miami County Recycles"
253. another bag clip
254. NASA astronaut action figure
255. 3" tall teddy bear
256. small beanbag doll of Bert from Sesame Street
257. life-sized rubber lizard
258. fancy bow made of ribbon
259. a small ball chain
260. a bean bag rhinoceros keychain
261. 2 bra extenders
262. an unfinished piece of netting
263. a fancy wooden-framed magnifying glass
264. 2 more clippy-arms koalas
265. a mirror, broken into three pieces
266. 2 sets of chopsticks
267. a plastic condom-case containing a condom that expired this June
268. an old sanitary-pad belt
269. 18" of 1" elastic
270. a length of green-and-black fingerloop cord
275. a laminated paper bookmark shaped like a parrot
276. six small crosses folded from Easter palms
277. ink cartridge for fountain pen
278. another feather
279. small bivalve shell
280. double-ended screwdriver tip
281. three assorted fridge magnets
282. 3 bottlecaps
283. unopened bandaid
284. 2 xtra fuzzy blue pipecleaners
285. 4 more clothespins
286. 4 sugar packets
287. 3 lengths of braided string/ribbon
288. a plastic... thing that says HP on it, from an ink cartridge
289. a pen and a pencil
290. caramel hard candy
291. 3 bulldog clips
292. buckeye nut
293. a piece of slate w/ an ancient Vulcan mythological painting on it
294. John Carter's sword
295. 5 rubber bands + a broken rubber band
296. 4 paperclips and a safety pin
297. 2 pen lids
298. metal ceiling hook w/out bracket
299. heavy-duty metal keyring ring
300. foam scrap
301. hair elastic
302. potholder loom loop
303. more denim scraps
304. more bits for stuffed spinks
305. hairstick
306. four foil candy wrappers
307. ornament hanger
308. 4 mysterious plastic bits
309. drywall screw
310. a leather needle
311. a straight pin
312. 2 thumbtacks
313. a wooden owl with a clothespin glued on the back of it
314. 3 pony beads
315. a tiny screw
316. the clip from an Ace bandage
317. a tag from a piece of clothing
318. 3 broken bits of things

...and that's half of what's left, time for another putting-away break. (All the tiny stuff sinks to the bottom, so we are getting progressively smaller and less exciting as we go.)


319. a wooden cutout in the shape of my first name
320. a coal-hod carven from a piece of coal
321. a clippy-armed koala, a clippy-armed snoopy, 2 more clippy-armed nuns
322. a broken bamboo needle
323. a small thing of bubbles from a wedding
324. a wind-up dancing robot, which is broken and will not dance
325. a very small red-haired doll
326. a neatly-bundled length of lucet cord
327. glow-in-the-dark nail polish in a skull jar
328. 8 more buckeye nuts
329. a Lucite alligator
330. a rock with Bambi painted on it
331. 2 different cell phone charger adaptors
332. a micromachines millenium falcon
333. a cheap pocketknife with kisses
334. the rest of the ceiling hook
335. 5 small dolls made of pompom and pipecleaner
336. another clothespin
337. another head of a screwdriver
338. another lucite alligator
339. a dried rosebud
340. 4 more sugar packets
341. a used post-it note
342. 3 more palm crosses
343. 3 more bivalve shells
344. a pencil
345. a small plastic turtle, beetle, and frog
346. a Lambda- class shuttle minus its airfoils
347. a large rubber praying mantis
348. a piece from a Star Wars tracing set
349. 6 more bottlecaps
350. a sliced cowrie shell
351. 8 more screws
352. $.18 in change
353. 4 hair elastics
354. 3 box tops for education expired in 2012
355. 9 thumbtacks
356. 22 beads, ass't'd
357. a nametag from an election
358. an LED
359. 4 buttons
360. An extremely small bell
361. 2 straight pins
362. a safety pin
363. a piece from a construction set that used to be in with the legos but doesn't actually interface with lego in any way
364. a small eraser shaped like a whale
365. 2 (non-matching) ends off of earbuds
366. a small chunk of magnet with 4 small screws stuck to it
367. the pull-tab off a pop-bottle
368. 1 large and 2 small nails
369. 3 black pop-beads
370. a small brass cuff or casing
371. a small piece of turtle-shell
372. another foil candy wrapper
373. 2 more bulldog clips
374. a curtain hook
375. a purple plastic flower, once on a ring
376. a pencil-top eraser
377. a blue plastic sheriff's deputy's badge with a safety pin glued to the back
378. another badge/button
379. a flosser
380. a paperclip
381. another denim scrap
382. 2 unidentifiable plastic objects
383. some tiny broken scraps
384. a goldfish that will grow 10x the size if put in water

And that is IT! All the THINGS that were in the bag of STUFF. Now I just need to do something with the rest of them....

FINAL UPDATE:
ALL of the stuff from the bag of stuff is now either:
1. thrown away
2. put away
3. in the bag of stuff to donate
4. in the bag of stuff that goes in the crafting room somewhere
5. in the bag of stuff that goes in the bathroom somewhere
6. in the Box of Missing Pieces
7. in the... new... improved... but at least much smaller? bag of Stuff.

...I will deal with the remaining three bags tomorrow. (But I will not be liveblogging! Sorry.)

Comments

[loki_of_sassgaard]

I have one of those bags too. I'm almost afraid to go through it.

[melannen]

doing it as performance art is adding a lot to the experience, I've gotta say

[loki_of_sassgaard]

Mine's a big, scary purple shopping bag, and I'm just looking at it from across the room, knowing it ate my SD card adapter at one point.

And probably Hawkeye's bow and Mjolnir.

[melannen]

Mine's a turquoise shopping bag. I feel you. SO FAR have not found any unique enchanted weapons, but may yet. (no wait. There were three lightsabers that fell out of it before I got it to the workspace, I guess they count.)

[loki_of_sassgaard]

If the bow and hammer aren't in there, I may cry. I tossed my action figures into the bag when I was moving my room around a few weeks ago, and they came out weaponless. This is not okay.

[melannen]

oh no, action-figure sized weapons are the worst once you lose track of them. :/ I'm pretty sure that both Jack O'Neill's weapons and John Carter of Mars's weapons are in this bag somewhere, but I had given up hope on them long ago, so perhaps they are in the ether..

[isis]

I wonder if this method would work for me? (I have STUFF too.)

[melannen]

I would love to see into your collection of STUFF.

...so far it has helped to get stuff out of the bag. Finding stuff to do with it, still an open question.

[sineala]

I kind of have to wonder what's happening to the limbs of your action figures.

[melannen]

Oh, well, the Jack O'Neill, IIRC, came with interchangeable hands? I think so he could hold different things? But they never stayed in very well. IDK if I took them off and put them safely wherever his ZAT ended up or if they just fell out and will turn up farther down in the bag, though.

Dejah Thoris was very poorly designed. Her neck had a joint such that you should be able to rotate her head. Except her hair came down far enough that when you tried, it hit her shoulders and popped her head off. I think her head came off about two hours after I bought her. I still have it around somewhere, just never decided what would be the best way to fasten it back on.

(I mean, the real answer is "they go in the Bag of Stuff, like everything else I own that is not a) clothing, b) art supplies, or c) a book.")

[synecdochic]

44. tag from some piece of embroidered 'fair trade' clothing that I bought at 70% clearance markdown (...at which point it probably doesn't count as fair trade anymore....)

The retail establishment already bought it at the wholesale price no matter what, so your conscience is clear there! (The markdown/clearance comes out of the retailer's part, not the wholesaler's.)

[melannen]

Well, I'm buying it from the Ten Thousand Villages outlet store in New Windsor that's on the same Mennonite/Brethren campus as the warehouse, and I think part of their "fair trade"-ness is that they're negotiating as directly as possible with the craftspeoples' groups to minimize markups. And what sells full price *does* have a direct effect on what they buy next round.

On the other hand, once it's been marked down that much, I'm pretty sure any decisions about whether to buy more from the craftspeople have already been made, and I *am* still reducing the loss they're taking. :P Plus I get nifty clothes dirt cheap so there's that.

[synecdochic]

And enables them to make space for the next round of purchases!

[melannen]

Exactly! It's win all around.

[highlander_ii]

I can't determine if you need a shelf dedicated to misfit action figures or to make a 'grab bag' of broken toys to sell on the interwebs to some collector who needs the parts that you have available.

Personally, I'm in the market for a 'support beam' for Dracula's castle (The Van Helsing one) b/c the front-middle is all droopy the way it's built. I'm thinking I may skip over to a Home Depot-style place and find a nice 1/4" dowel that I paint a v. dark metallic grey and prop it up. Silly Dracula - must've spent all of his funding on the big lightning collectors for makin' his bebes.

[melannen]

...I only own five action figures! They're just... all in the bag of Stuff. (Well not counting the Star Wars ones but they're actually in proper storage and half-owned by my sister.)

(I do have a collection of broken toy bits as well but they're safely tucked away in the jewelry-making supplies.)

Would Dracula like this 8" x 3/8" x 3/4" piece of wood I just found? It's very nicely varnished and I have no idea where it came from.

[highlander_ii]

5 is a collection! even if they are mis-matched. (tho i do feel for the poor Jack and his no hands)

alas - Drac's castle would require a 12" piece of wood, but thank you.

[marginaliana]

This list was very fascinating in a way that felt kind of like poetry. Stuff in ones life that just sort of appears!

(Also, I really want to organize things in my house now.)

[melannen]

It is! I'm actually really glad I will have this list, I feel like there's a lot of information encoded in it, you know?

And organizing is fun. ...until you get to the stuff that goes in the Bag of Stuff because you don't know where it goes, at which point it is less fun.

[redsnake05]

I am exhausted just reading this in retrospect, but it has also given me just a smidgen of motivation to go finish packing my craft room (because it can't be anywhere near as complicated as this). Good luck for tomorrow!

[melannen]

It's SURPRISINGLY exhausting to do something like that, isn't it? I was not only mentally exhausted but aching by the time I quit last night.

...good luck on the craft room. We had an Incident this summer where the shelves that held all the carefully-sorted craft stuff fell over, and knocked over the yarn bins on the way down. That was ..not fun. But at least it's more stable and better organized now.

[verity]

TRULY HEROIC EFFORT.

[melannen]

SURELY I CAN FINISH IN ONE MORE GO

[torachan]

That is a lot of stuff. D:

[melannen]

...I did not expect there to be almost 400 things on that list when I started.

[zlabya]

Wow! I'm getting inspired to deal with my multiple bags and boxes of STUFF. I won't liveblog but I kind of like the idea of "reporting" on my blog to share the experience and to motivate myself to do something about it all once it's sorted.

Several items were marked with an asterisk but I couldn't find text identifying what the asterisk was for. I'm very curious now!

[melannen]

Oh, the asterisks were the items that went back in the bag because I still couldn't figure out what to do with them. But them I lost steam on marking them so the last couple hundreds didn't get marked. Alas, they are all still in the bag, because I haven't had time to figure anything out.

It was actually kind of an exciting adventure, once I got myself in the mindset that it was going to be an exciting adventure and not horrible and scary! Of course it took me like two years to find that mindset... I think I would enjoy reading about other people's STUFF, too, it's amazing the things that turn up.

[zlabya]

Thanks for the explanation of the asterisked items!

I think when I do mine I'll either post a picture or describe the more interesting items. Or maybe do a photo essay of before, during and after.

I've decided to use my two holiday items (both from manga) since there's so little time to use them, comparatively.