I know it is a big change: paying bills online, exchanging photos, downloading movies, legal and illegal file-sharing. In many ways, the world is emerging in a new form. As with books bought but not read, so with songs downloaded. Soon you have 300 CD’s of carefully chosen song tracks but when will you listen to all that? Again songs were collected but not listened to, like the books. We get seven or so magazines at our house but we don’t read all the issues.
Chris Anderson’s book “Free” looks at the phenomenon of things being for free but that is not likely to correct the over-abundance problem. His blog tries to stay up-to-date on developments and thoughts about things being offered for free. But free makes it even easier, at least at first, to take more than you can use, eat, store, even remember. A friend just wrote that only a day ago, she found two books in her library that she must have purchased herself but she can’t remember when and she isn’t sure why.
One of our favorite books, Clutter’s Last Stand by Don Aslett, is one of several on the problem of staying somewhat simplified and organized as time goes by. It ain’t easy. My favorite businessman was complaining that he knows the production cost of many items and he sees what is being charged for the thing. He can figure the % of markup and he doesn’t want to give that much markup to the seller. He is tempted to simply offer to “meet the seller behind the dumpster”. He explained that ultimately everything is either sold or disposed of. If he meets the seller behind the dumpster, he can have the item or hundreds of them for free as they are thrown out.
Try to dispose of your sweatshirts for cash on eBay and you find that dozens of others are already doing that. Try to give them to the local Goodwill store or charity and they already have enough and more. Too many calories, too many tv shows, yikes! I have several email accounts but don’t remember to check them all. I might have won the Bulgarian lottery and not know it! Lynn just found that she has a web site she forgot about. Sure, chalk it up to our being old but give me a chance and I bet I can find you have forgotten books, clothes, cans of food, maybe bank accounts, too.
