Worthless junk from w*rk

[freebird5825]

I kept my personnel records and my nameplate. My 2 patent awards are tucked away somewhere.

It was loads of fun shredding the personnel reviews that I refused to sign for the last 7 years of w*rking.

I have recently been added to the mailing list of a retirees social club. The guy running it is cool, so I just may attend the next luncheon and see how that goes. There were some fun folks at the j*b that I would like to see again. I'll show up looking very feminine with a little makeup, my now much longer hair and a summer dress, just to get a laugh from the guys who have never seen me look like that.

 

[Midpack]

I kept a lot of personal documents from work, but not much else, just in case I found I wanted to go back to work. Sort of forgot about it all until one day after about three years retired I looked at it and asked myself why am I keeping this stuff - and pitched/shredded it all...

 

[grasshopper]

I got off cheap when my Dad died. I paid for the roll-off trash container and chute, and my brothers did all he heavy lifting. I was 2500 miles away.

 

[Mo Money]

Since this thread has wandered from a discussion of work junk to junk in general, I will lament that my two biggest jumbles of stuff that are getting nightmarish in dimension are books and clothing.

I will give up a book when they pry my cold dead fingers from around it.

And as to the clothes, I have an old house with a weird master BR closet. Its door is on the right and the closet space runs far to the left of the door. It used to be (6 months ago, pre-ER) that all my busin*ss clothes were right there when you opened the door. All casual clothes were a lonnnng reach to the left. Yesterday, I thought: "I haven't touched ANY of these 30 or so dress shirts and 8 suits since February!" So instead of throwing them out, I just reversed things and moved the dress clothes far to the left. Consigned to Closet Siberia. Now my t-shirts are right in front of me. But if only I could only drum up the courage to give the off*ce clothes away....

Which reminds me, months ago I posted this funny link:

www.youhavetoomuchsh*t.com (replace the * with an "i" and you'll link to the site).

 

[Andre1969]

You kept all that crap for all those years? Wow........ Must have meant something to ya I guess.

I think that's one of the problems with having too much space. It's easy to just pack something away and forget about it, rather than make the decision to save or discard. I'm guilty of it, myself. I get those trinkets from work, and they end up in a box out in the garage, or packed in the storage room or something.

 

[athena53]

For general de-cluttering I have two recommendations. First, "Rightsizing your Life" by Ciji Ware, is a great book- it covers both the practical and emotional sides of de-cluttering and downsizing. She even lists places you can recycle things. One of these days I plan to take all our excess, worn-out towels to the local animal shelter. The second is Craigslist. List it as "Free Stuff", put it at the end of your driveway, provide your address and it will disappear. I've gotten rid of well-built chairs that needed caning and new cushions, leftover grout, empty scotch whisky canisters, and two tins of old buttons inherited from 2 mothers-in-law, among other things. I feel SO much better when I'm not just adding to the landfills.


Business paraphernalia- I've saved some of the good stuff. The crystal paperweights are on a shelf in front of a window in my home office. I got rid of a lot of the inconsequential plaques, but saved the one with my professional designation and the two I got for serving on the Society's Board of Directors. That career got me where I am now- retired early in a place we love, with enough $$ to enjoy retirement. I did, however, discard everything with the logo of my last employer. I'm hoping one of the T-shirts will show up on the security footage when someone robs a bank.


I started a discussion on LinkedIn a few years ago in the alumni group of one large financial services entity asking what paraphernalia people had form the company; it still gets new responses. Amazing what some people saved- even back copies of the company newsletter. I still use the bookends I got as a gift after 5 years of service.

 

[Amethyst]

I threw a lot of my suits away, much to Mr. A's chagrin ("Those looked good on you! They were expensive!" and my siblings': "You could donate them to a women's shelter!" Yeah, like anybody wants 20-year-old clothes that probably wouldn't fit anybody but me. Size 6 jacket and size 4 skirt? Who wears that combo?

But with my upbringing and his, getting rid of anything is hard. We had so little for so long.

Amethyst

Yesterday, I thought: "I haven't touched ANY of these 30 or so dress shirts and 8 suits since February!" .

 

[Andre1969]

This thread got me to start looking in the two boxes I have under my desk at work. I found a bottle of white out. I figured it was safe to toss that. It had solidified, anyway

 

[Racer X]

When I was closing out my parents' house, I got rid of a whole pickup truck of glass jelly jars--all from Dollar General Store. I just wonder how many loaves of bread they went through eating toast and jelly that left behind 1000 lbs. of glass jars.

Possessions are worth so much more to the owners than those that inherit it. My kids will be cussing me for years with all "my stuff."

I have enough good inherited furniture to furnish 8 bedrooms and two full dining rooms. We swap out furniture from time to time in rooms for a change.

My parents are avid "collectors." My father, however, pulled me aside one day to discuss the value of some of their stuff. His sage advice was, "When we go, burn the house and take the insurance money. That'll be far easier than sorting through all of our crap."

 

[MichaelB]

My point is, don't downsize/declutter stuff that still has some entertainment and/or sentimental value to you just to keep the kids from having to do it. Just make sure they understand that after you're gone paying someone to heave it into a dumpster is perfectly OK.

That's a very good point. I cleaned out after an aunt, then my father, and now I'm doing it for my mother. The one big take-away for me after that is to make sure to let my kids know very clearly what stuff of mine has any financial value, what stuff has any sentimental value, and how to divide up those things amongst them. That's a short list, and they'll be able to toss everything else.

We still have some worthless junk from work - awards and such. No harm in keeping them, no need to give it any thought before tossing it all after I'm gone.

 

[LoneAspen]

They always made a big deal about patents at Megacorp (though I must admit the couple $K they'd give out when one got filed always mattered more to me than the snazzy plaque). Several years ago I watched as a friend/colleague got RIF/retired and saw him just chuck over 10 of those plaques in the dumpster. I admit I was kind of horrified at the time... then fast forward 5 years and I found myself doing exactly the same thing earlier this year. Tossing out all those plaques was a big part of my personal disengagement process.

Some things are harder to let go than others, but it all gots to GO.

When I lived in Colorado, I had what I called the Wall of Shame which was a collection of all the useless trinkets and crap accumulated from work. The jewel of my collection was a clear plastic piece of junk from when I worked at a megacorp that had spun off a division into a separate company. It was for a "Founder's Grant" of about 100 shares IIRC. The stupid plastic block was worth more than the shares because I didn't stick around long enough for them to vest.

When I moved from Colorado back to California, I got a big trash bin delivered into the driveway so I could clear out the house, and all that crap went into it.

The company I'm at right now had a product launch recently and they gave out company logo baseball caps and t-shirts. Those got promptly thrown in the corner of the closet when I got home, and I'm sure will go into a local charity's clothing donation bin when I quit and move away.

I have no use for that junk anymore.

 

[Options]

Here's what I keep and will not throw away: cards and pictures. I have cards given to me going all the way back to undergrad. Last week decluttering what little I have left to declutter, I went through all of those cards and was shocked at what incredibly beautiful words had been written to me by various people over time. Without keeping those cards, I would have forgotten how lucky I have been to know so many wonderful people throughout my life. I would have forgotten just how much I was either loved or thought well of.

The same goes for pictures. For example, I have some pictures of when I worked for a large luxury hotel 15 years ago, and looking at them reminded me of just how much I loved that job, that hotel, and all the people I worked with. Looking at those pictures brought that entire fulfilling experience back to me. I had the most fantastic time there.

My life has been both incredibly hard and incredibly lucky. I don't live in the past as a practice, so without keeping at least some of these cards and pictures I'm in danger of forgetting just how lucky and blessed I've been.

 

[HFWR]

All work-related tschotskes have been relegated to the big, green can out back. Well, except for the SS Weber grill I got for serving a 25-yr sentence...

 

[powerplay]

Here's what I keep and will not throw away: cards and pictures. I have cards given to me going all the way back to undergrad. Last week decluttering what little I have left to declutter, I went through all of those cards and was shocked at what incredibly beautiful words had been written to me by various people over time. Without keeping those cards, I would have forgotten how lucky I have been to know so many wonderful people throughout my life. I would have forgotten just how much I was either loved or thought well of.

The same goes for pictures. For example, I have some pictures of when I worked for a large luxury hotel 15 years ago, and looking at them reminded me of just how much I loved that job, that hotel, and all the people I worked with. Looking at those pictures brought that entire fulfilling experience back to me. I had the most fantastic time there.

My life has been both incredibly hard and incredibly lucky. I don't live in the past as a practice, so without keeping at least some of these cards and pictures I'm in danger of forgetting just how lucky and blessed I've been.

I have a scrapbook of the cards and notes from high school graduation 40+ years ago. It is enjoyable to sit and read through all the cards every few years and appreciate all the friends and family that are no longer here. Scanning those cards would lose the essence of them and would never be even a close second.

 

[tryan]

Mega corp had a 3 tiered recognition program: a framed certificate, a framed certificate and $200, a framed certificate and a grand. Never. never, saw anyone get the grand .... in hindsite it was just a carrot on a stick.

Funny to see all the framed certificates in the dumpster after our dept was laid off.

 

[NW-Bound]

...The one big take-away for me after that is to make sure to let my kids know very clearly what stuff of mine has any financial value, what stuff has any sentimental value...

One of my brother-in-laws and his wife like to go to garage sales looking for bargain. More than once, they have bought heavy real gold jewelry that people sell at the price of costume jewelry for a couple of dollars. Ka ching!

 

[athena53]

One of my previous employers provided a gift catalogue at each anniversary (the choices got more extravagant for longer tenures) but also gave a gold charm or tie tack with the company logo and a diamond for every 5 years. I'm probably the only employee who ever bothered to have the charms mounted in a bracelet, but I had a charm bracelet and it was a good place for them. I did notice that at 5 years it was 10k gold but 5 years later it was gold-plated. We'll see how long it takes for the plating to wear off.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here are two good rules, I try to apply but often don't.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris

And.....

Estimate the value of an object. Would you buy it at that price if you did not already have it? If the answer is no, sell it or give it away.

Obviously, none of this applies to precious things that have a personal/emotional value.

 

[Koolau]

In addition to the many pen and pencil presentation sets, pocket watch (in "hand rubbed" walnut case - 25 years plate on top), desk sets (including letter opener - what would I do with that?), certificates, awards, blah, blah, blah, I went so far as to actually take home (with permission) a 20 liter reagent bottle and a 30 liter bioautograph developing chamber. 40 years ago I had visions of turning these into terrarium or planters. For a couple of years, I used the 20 liter bottle for a "bank", dumping my daily change into it. Big mistake. I could barely turn the thing on its side to fish out the change later on. Funny how things that seem important at the time become huge paper weights later on. Eventually the later two items were passed on to a family friend (who probably tried using them as a bank or something just as impractical.)

Most of this junk just got dumped. Hate to think what Megacorp spent on trying to bribe us worker bees into compliance. It never worked. Most "tokens" became grim reminders of yet another failed program or policy (anyone remember Performance Excellence?) I kept the watch 'cause I like the presentation box. YMMV

 

[Options]

I have a scrapbook of the cards and notes from high school graduation 40+ years ago. It is enjoyable to sit and read through all the cards every few years and appreciate all the friends and family that are no longer here. Scanning those cards would lose the essence of them and would never be even a close second.

Emphasis added

Exactly!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Over the 22 years in the Air Force, I accumulated quite a bit of junk. When I was all wrapped up and finally retired, I got rid of everything except my retirement flag and a couple of cool lithograph going away pictures. All the awards and other crap that would normally adore a "love me wall" were relegated to the garbage. I still have a ton of flight suits that I will sell one day when I get the motivation.

 

[LitGal]

Another De-Cluttering Update

I check in, on various threads, happy to report the progress of my Three-Year-House-Purge.

Can now see much more of the walls, in both the basement and the garage.

Habitat for Humanity is coming with a truck to carry away 3/4 of the furniture in DH's workshop........which will open up even more of the basement. Plus they are taking the ping-pong table. So the floor can be painted.

Threw away about half of our accumulated awards, and about half of my teaching files. (Down to one 5-drawer file cabinet, six large file boxes, and a lateral file in my office.) Would love to pitch more, but I never know when a new teacher will need stuff like essay topics for Crime and Punishment or theatre projects for Hamlet. It can make their week when I prevent them from having to "re-invent the wheel."

Since mentoring them is my little 2 day/mo. job, it's great to have an easy way to make their lives easier. So, I guess the boxes and cabinets will get hauled into my little condo someday..........unless I quit the little job.

 

[spncity]

Friends know we're decluttering.

Me: "Do you want to know my best tip for decluttering?"

Them: "Yeah. What is it?"

Me: "Start ten years ago."

 

[GrayHare]

Why do we save this junk?

'Cause it feels so good when we toss it!

 

[Meadbh]

As they say, "that will come in handy to throw away sometime!"