Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Fun Stuff

I had a FUN day at work yesterday! 
The first really fun day since before Covid, and certainly since the break-ins. 
Weekly meetings (new to us) aid our workplace communication immensely--imagine that--and there's been no conflict for a while.

Yesterday I worked all day sorting, cleaning, and pricing housewares--(my original volunteer job, which I'd loved)––dishes and knick knacks and all sorts of stuff.

I'd say a quarter of donations are trash. 
I threw out filthy stuffed animals, sticky Tupperware;
cheap Christmas crap (no room to store the junky stuff until November), 
chipped china,  rusty metal gadgets, broken plastic gadgets; 
objects stamped with pharmaceutical logos or the names of wedding couples, "Bob and Susan, 2003".

It's fun to jettison junk, though it's also depressing, the sheer amount of it.


Other stuff is not junk, but it's practically unsaleable---punch bowl and cup sets, for instance.

"Not junk" in my eyes, anyway. Like weird old dolls. LOVE!
The dirty, broken ones won't sell, but I can't throw them out.

Half the donations are decent useful or decorative things---plates and pandas and pedicure packs.
 

Maybe a quarter of the donations are interesting.

A set of silverware with teak handles and ornamental scrollwork necks--1970s?
A mid-century orange, art-glass ashtray, hefty enough to be a murder weapon.

A vintage, little drinking glass--a tourist trinket--embossed with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  

5 comments:

Steve Reed said...

I love all the weird trinkets that pass through thrift stores -- and hence I always love your photos. But as I've said before, I don't think I could have your job. I'd wind up bringing way too much stuff home!

Michael Leddy said...

Panel Care! That’d be helpful at academic conferences: Forms a protective seal against personal attacks and lengthy, self-involved “questions.”

Fresca said...

STEVE: I do think you'd be in trouble at the thrift store--some people in this job seem to become hoarders in response to the wonderfully cool but unsaleable stuff.

MICHAEL: That's hilarious! If only you were still in academia, I could send it to you and you could have preserved your sanity.
You do seem to have retained it, though.
Perhaps that is just a veneer? :)

Michael Leddy said...

Sanity? I hope so. I do know that I refused all Kool-Aid, regardless of source.

bink said...

Love the heads of dolls with the marcel hairdos. 1920s? 30s?