It all started with a social media ad for a fire extinguisher in a can. Since I cook with electric, not gas (imagine that), I don’t worry as much about having accidents in the kitchen with an open flame, but I figured it would be helpful to have something on hand to extinguish a fire anyway.
I had just paid the credit card bill hours before, but the deed was done.
The empty credit card statement never stays so for long. I’ve learned this early and often (like every month). Luxury spending is part of the bill, and I know they add up. However, it’s good to know what I’m buying is helpful stuff on occasion, to make up for the other things. Some people put their daily coffee on their card, while others indulge in one big expenditure once in a while, like a coffee maker to bring down all those daily coffee purchases. We all have our needs and vices laid out in detail on our monthly transaction roundup.
Since I began the quest to declutter the home I’ve grown up in since before I started school, it’s been a challenge. The stuff from the history of my life is all good. None of it is really broken, just obsolete. The corner table I ordered this week for the hallway is going to be useful, since I made the decision to obliterate the furniture ghosts of the past and tidy the upstairs hallway. The corner held old books geared to a more youthful me, situated on a towering shelf unit for years, so those books are going away, to be replaced by a barren tiered thing with decorative knickknacks on it, such as a candle which will never be lit, but looks good. Let’s face it: one can’t be stylish and have an empty corner.
After the order for the extinguisher in a can and the shelf, I received an email from my collectibles dealer, announcing that a new item I was interested in for 2024 (the new catalogue is a week old) was available to order. I’m still waiting on word from items I wanted in the 2023 collection. I suddenly feel like I’m being offered the iPhone 17 before the 16 (wouldn’t take either: I’m an Android girl), but collectibles are sold on a deadline, so yes I ordered it.
Since spring is coming, an offer came into my feed for a revised compact hose. It comes with its own spray nozzle, and I can drink water from the hose because the inside is free of contaminants. How could I pass that up when I have a spigot in need of its own hose? Maybe I can relive my childhood before the idea of clean garden hose water became obsolete, and drink water from the hose while I’m watering the landscaping.
The store was out of my cleaning supplies. Amazon to the rescue with overnight shipping. I could clean my countertops and my face, since I threw in some makeup remover towelettes. A neighborhood feed noted that folks were coming around to talk about solar or our souls (not sure which). Simply apply a small sign, ordered online, by the doorbell reading “No Solicitations of Any Kind.” Problem solved. Can’t have anybody interrupting a work Zoom meeting with the executives to talk about saving either me or the planet. I’d rather save my job.
The groceries were my biggest purchase this past week. All at once I ran out of mixed nuts, bananas, oranges, fish, eggs, and something for dessert.
The handyman came to help this week and found that the window shade I ordered was too long. The worker who cut the shade had the old one as a template. How could that possibly go wrong? It means a trip back to the big store for a fix, and I never come out of there with just what I went into the place for.
Maybe I’ll get a bracket to mount that extinguisher in the can. And a few houseplants.
Besides that, my other order was for a magnetic paper towel holder. The handyman removed the old one from the wall. My late father was ever the one for finding some solution to a problem. His “that’ll hold it” attitude kept many disasters at bay by either good fortune or sheer will. For this job he had used long, permanent, unremovable nails with spring mounts to fasten the original holder, and removing them required cutting the hardware and breaking the old plastic holder. It was, after all, obsolete. Over 24 years ago. I was using a countertop model and hated it. Pulling towels vertically doesn’t work for me. Now that the old holder is gone, I freed much-needed inches of space. The new holder did not come free. I’ll pay for it next billing cycle.
My spending did go further beyond the usual, because I took a trip to the mall to enjoy some indoor walking for my health. Only one store drew me in, and I broke out my loyalty charge card. That’s a separate bill from the credit card department statement.
But what I bought will be useful. Nothing about this person is obsolete.
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