The Joys of De-Junking

I know I talked about seasons and spring a couple of weeks ago, but bear with me while I wax enthusiastic about another wonderful thing about spring in our town: Spring Clean Up Day. At least that's the community's name for it, but it's commonly referred to as Junk Day. And I love it!

One day a year residents have permission to haul our crap out to the curb and have it picked up for free. There are parameters, of course. No large appliances, computers, TVs, tires, or hazardous waste. But it really isn't about what's allowed or disallowed. I get giddy at the opportunity to de-junk the house. A family of seven accumulates an obscene amount of stuff. Raising five kids ensures that most of it is junk by the time they leave home :) Spring cleanup provides motivation to clear more of it out of the house.

My husband needs plenty of motivation :)

In many ways, we're polar opposites. I'm a thrower, he's a stuffer. Drawers, containers, entire rooms...no space is safe from him. I blame it on his farm background. I swear he'd be perfectly content to live in a nice machine shed, one corner outfitted with a recliner, TV, table and frig. Spare parts, sheet metal, scraps of lumber, random nuts and bolts are all stored handily nearby. What more could the guy want?

His wife, however--ahem--likes order. I'm partial to nice things. Things that don't make me cringe even to have them sitting on the curb, lest people realize we actually had them in our house.

Many years when this day rolls around my husband is in the field and I happily haul stuff out without consulting him. He has yet to miss anything that has 'disappeared' when he wasn't here. This year, however, he was present and it was a battle to get him to part with anything. Everything had a possible purpose: we could use this in the garage for storage! (the fact that we haven't for the last dozen years doesn't faze him). Or, 'I use that sheet of plywood to cut spare pieces of wood from.'

This year's pile included old carpet; the old screen door; a pile of rocks (don't ask me why he had rocks stored in a room in the basement--his reasoning escapes me); an old humidifier; two old mattresses; a TV that doesn't work; a metal filing cabinet; some broken toys; and several boxes of random junk that would have been tossed long ago had I realized he still had it around.

There are two stages to Clean Up Day: the day items actually get picked up by the trash men and the preceding days filled with 'junkers'. Prior to pick up day, people can (and do) drive around town and paw through other people's discards, taking anything they want. It's not unusual to have someone come to the door to ask questions about the junk: "Does that TV work?" or "Do you have any 8-tracks for that stereo?" (Sadly, we do. And they didn't make it to the curb this year either.)

It gets to be sort of a game to see what people will pick up. When they were little, my kids would stand in front of the front window peeking out, watching the junkers look for treasure. "They're taking the broken fan!" they'd yell with equal parts excitement and wonder. We're still thrilled to death that people can salvage things we can no longer use. The less that goes to the land fill, the better for all of us.

Does your town have a Clean Up Day? Do you have anyone in your household you have to battle with before discarding anything? If you could get away with tossing out one item from your house (and not get caught!) what would it be?