Reading Test

I am not obsessed with throwing things out, but l came from a family that kept everything. Unwanted garments were rolled in newspaper to prevent silverfish eating them and everything was kept for a day when it may be used. That day never came and when l married, the wife kept everything.  .  . empty boxes and packages and clothes. Everything filled the cupboards.
At the time, I bought and sold old black and white TVs and l soon learned to take the worthless TV’s to the tip. I kept everything  under control.
And then l sold hundreds of new colour TV’s and they came with enormous amounts of cardboard packaging and foam inserts. In those days you could have a incinerator and l had to burn the cardboard every week and made an enormous fire.
After the end of TV repairs and colour sales, l built double story townhouses and had to take the broken bricks, tiles, wood and plaster to the tip.
Tip fees were very low in those days and paying $16.00 in cash with no receipt allowed me to enter with no inspection.
All this has taught me to throw things out all the time.
We have 3 large council bins and these are filled each week with paper, tins, bottles, garden cuttings and everything else that can be cut up and fitted into a bin.
I also deliver things to the charity store and as free items on the internet.
When tenants leave a property, they leave mountains of furniture, trash and things that need to be given away or trashed.
I also use the yearly council pick-up for fridges, TVs, cupboards, beds, washing machines, furniture, lounges. And everything else left by the tenants.
But not only that, l had to deal with 13 bins of rubbish each week from the 3 town houses.
The amount of rubbish l have sorted and tipped in the past 10 years has been astronomical. From building waste, to people going overseas and leaving furniture behind, to tenants leaving everything for me.
Out of all this, there is a lesson.
Things must be junked. Things have to be moved.
But there is a secret to acquiring this capability.
If you have a reaction to throwing things out, you need to do it in steps and stages.
Use a certain location in the backyard to place things you do not want.
After a short period of time they will get destroyed by the rain and weather.
This will make them unsalvageable and much easier to throw out.
You have to fill every bin, every week.
Garden cuttings can fill the bins and other things can be cut up or smashed to fit.
Fortunately we have free council pick-up once or twice a year and large things can be put out for removal.
This is something you have to do all the time.
It’s the only way to keep your garden from over-growing.
It’s the only way to keep your cupboards available for new clothes.
It's the only way to maintain living space.
And it’s the only way to keep yourself from going mad.