Sunday, October 07, 2007

The economics of moving

One of the joys of living with someone else - and moreso than when you just have typical roommates - is the God-given right to criticize what they do, when they do it and how they go about achieving the same goals as you.

Case in point - our weekend spent packing for the move home.

When I shook out a garbage bag, the dog ran for cover - I asked him if that meant that between a pack rat and a piglet, he didn't hear many garbage bags around the house.

It brought up an interesting train of thought - you have to do something to keep occupied when throwing out two years of phone books, right? - that is illustrated in our house whenever spring cleaning time rolls around.

As a pack rat, I will keep all kinds of garbage for years and years on end, while the Girl is more prone to throwing things out and buying new if she needs them again. My instinct is to save that second trip to the store and additional investment, while I realize that this comes at a cost as well.

Exactly when would I need half of the crap I've collected? In the case of my high school ID card, I'd guess never. I'd really like to see a solid dollar figure placed on all of those worthless knickknacks.

Still, it's been nice to see some cash roll in for things we would have just pitched before the advent of Craig's List. Not nice enough to convince me to part with my Justin Timberlake bobblehead, but nice enough.

(Image from: JaniceWise.com)

1 comment:

Deb said...

I can assure you the dollar value on that stuff is negative. It would actually decrease your net worth. Trust me, I married a pack rat. I know these things.

P.S. Found you doing a random search for some of my blog keywords. I love the Minnesota quote, particularly since I live in St. Small:

http://missivesfromsuburbia.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-sicily-women-are-more-dangerous-than.html