Lost

I know I've mentioned it several times, but never in a really good format, so hopefully this will rectify that.  When I get rid of, or lose, or otherwise no longer possess an item which I have already uncatalogued, then I label it "lost." I've already done this with a few things, most notably object 165 which was the first thing I blogged and then got rid of.

But after I removed so many pairs of earrings from my life I felt rather liberated, and so I went through the rest of my jewelry box and got rid of anything that I didn't know why I was keeping and/or was never going to wear again.

This included several hand-made jewelry objects, one I made from beads my older sister got me for Christmas one year, another the bracelet that matched one of the earrings mentioned in object 165--the earrings from my cousin.  But those were things I hadn't cataloged yet.

I also went through the necklaces that I'd already mentioned and got rid of a few of those.  In general I felt strongly that now the objects were remembered on this blog, their picture was taken, and their story told; so why the hell was I keeping them?

Thus those objects are now "lost" to me.

The word 'lost' was an odd one to come to.  See, I wanted a way to mark that I'd gotten rid of a thing, but "thrown out" or "gave away" and all the other such options were too restrictive, and I didn't want to make the distinction between something I'd tossed, and something I'd sold, because any way that you looked at it, those object were still lost to me.

Granted, there's still a bit of confusion wherein people might think that I've actually lost the objects in question, so I've also added a "lost" field to the object summaries, wherein I explain where it went and when.

I don't want readers to think that this means I'm starting to remove all things from my life.  I still love my stuff, and I'm getting more every day (uh...oops), and I'm not advocating that you go and throw out all your beloved possessions.

Instead I'm taking a page from that article about Veridian Design (sort of) and trying to rid myself of the things that I don't need or want, the things that are too cheap, the stuff I don't use and the things that I have doubles of, that sort of stuff.  Next time you clean out your drawers, ask yourself, how many staplers do I really need? and go from there.