Still on the topic of clean-up, I've been helping my mom move house. Part of that has been going through the old stuff, seeing what needs to be packed, and what needs to be garage-saled out, donated, recycled, or disposed of. One thing I must say is that until you have done so, you won't believe the weird crap you'll find.

I'm a bit of a pack-rat myself, holding onto well after I'm supposed to get rid of it. Just by sitting here in my room as I type this, I see old clothes that I have no intention of wearing ever again, old bank statements that should be shredded, and a stack of binders that I used in high school. Most of it's a no-brainer as to which I should get rid of or recycle.

It seems that I inherited this from my late father (not the old crap, the pack-rat tendencies). Going through the garage, I found a weird assortment of stuff, much of which my father thought might be useful later down the road. I found old handles for cabinets and closets from a house I lived in when I was 14 (this was a really long time ago), as well as stuff that I could not recognize for the life of me.

Some stuff, I have no idea why it was kept. I found a lid to a casserole dish, the matching casserole itself being smashed years ago. I found old adaptors for electronic gadgets which have long since been discarded. Yesterday, my mom found a bunch of calendars dating back to 1973, the year that they came to Canada. Dunno why my dad kept them.

And then my mom found my dad's porn stash. I suggested that she could tape over them or something, but she wouldn't be able to cover up all the stickers that said "Red Hot Video" and "Swedish Erotica". Therefore, it found its way into the trash. After she took a pair of scissors to the actual magnetic tape portion, rendering it useless.

Somehow, I'm reminded of a Dan Savage column where he was asked about the ideal way to dispose of one's porn collection. He suggested leaving it out in a box on collection day with a few magazines visible on the top pile, and in less than 24 hours, the collection would be "recycled". And if he was uncomfortable about doing that, hs could always leave it in front of his neighbour's, or he could toss it in an alley near a high school.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find an old tape splicer...after I take out the trash.

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