Stuff It!

Every month, there’s a collection drive that takes place in my neighbourhood. A notice is sent around on WhatsApp informing the date, time and venue so that people can come by and drop off stuff they don’t need. This stuff is then taken away to be reused, recycled or upcycled. I’m a pretty regular (and generous!) contributor there. But what puzzles me is that in spite of my regularly disposing off stuff, why does stuff still keep accumulating?

So, I’ve now made a list of the stuff that I don’t throw away, which leads to every corner and cupboard of my house being full of stuff, regardless of how much stuff I keep giving away.

1. Stuff that other stuff comes in: This can be paper bags, cloth bags, cartons, and plastic containers that come with takeaway foodstuffs. Like every Indian middle-class home, I too have The Bag- which is a receptacle for other bags, both paper and cloth.

Then there’s a large drawer full of glass bottles and jars in interesting shapes and sizes- large, small, long, squat and even triangular (Bru Gold, anyone?). Another drawer has reusable plastic bottles which I keep for storing juices and iced teas in summer. Give them away? NEVER!! You never know when I might need half a dozen empty, 100 ml size glass jars.

2. Stuff that goes on other stuff:

This is an assortment of shabby, worn out linen like pillow-covers, bed covers and bed sheets. The colours are faded, the seams are coming apart, nothing matches with the other and yet- there they all sit, neatly ironed and folded. awaiting the light of day. I don’t have the heart to turn them into dusting rags or mops. And of course, you never know when I might have to host half a dozen guests in my tiny flat.

3. Stuff that’s too nice/too weird to dispose off:

Here we have old, beautifully illustrated calendars, glossy travel and food magazines dating back to the early 2000s when glossy magazines were a thing, quirky odds and ends picked up during travels or visits to exhibitions. I have this large, flat, broad, plastic spatula kind of thing that’s supposed to be handy for tucking bed- sheets under heavy, unwieldy mattresses. I haven’t used it even once. And I Hate changing the sheets.

Then there’s quite a number of brightly-coloured metal boxes in different sizes, all acquired during my trips to France. Catch me ever giving them away. Or using them!

Like those sleek, superior looking boxes that our smartphones come in. I have a drawer full of those as well. You never know when I might have to sell or return a phone.

4. Stuff that’s used to write stuff with on other stuff:

Yep, in addition to The Bag, there’s also The Drawer which bulges with pens, pencils, staples, staplers, rolls of sticky tape with no beginning or end, glue sticks that don’t stick, erasers that don’t erase and sharpeners that don’t sharpen but bite off the pencil lead.

Along with an array of post-its and note pads, scribble pads and sheets of paper with one side printed. You never know when I might need to paste a couple of dozen reminders all over my room, a la Ghajani style!

But every now and then, one comes across stuff that really is too precious and too valuable to give away.

For me, it was this collection of figurines that my father bought on his visit to China, years before I was born. Which makes them older than me. For the first 23 years of my life, they were always around and I never paid them much attention, except to admire them through the glass of the cabinet they were kept in.

Then we moved to a much smaller house and all the figurines were wrapped in newspaper and stored in a wooden crate, out of sight and very soon; out of mind.

It was only after my father passed away that we came across them and took them out to be kept in a different much smaller cabinet. But by then, it was too late to ask him about them and that is something I will always regret.

I have now brought these figurines to stay with me and given them pride of place in my living-room. I have no idea who or what they represent, nor do I care if they have any monetary or artistic value. They were bought by my dad, all the way from China, all those many years ago. That makes them invaluable for me.

And that puts them right of top of the list of STUFF THAT I WILL NEVER GIVE AWAY.