Never too many
A Post a Day in May 25/31
They arrive into the house, some ordinary, some exceptional, but always welcome. After all, there can never be too many, right?
Now, cardboard boxes, they’re a different story. They arrive, often delivered by the evil “A” empire, holding something we’ve bought that seemed essential; these days, it’s cat food that I can find only rarely on the store shelves. But during my closet clean-out the other day, it was a bonanza of shoeboxes I came across. They are a sweet size, with a lid, and so useful for so many different things. The furthest corner of the basement is now a towering pile of cardboard boxes, all shapes, all sizes, crowned with the latest shoeboxes. I may have a problem, I know. But I feel compelled to keep them, to keep them all because, well, I never know when I might need one. And it’s not like they’re easy to find. They’re not. Especially not the perfect one, exactly when I need it.
So. Embarrassing or not, that pile in the basement will continue to grow. Until, one day, when even I know there are too many and, that day — that day, I will cull them, but I can guarantee you that I won’t recycle them all. Because, well, you know: I just might need one that shape, that size, at an unexpected moment.
Author’s confessional note: I have the same issue with gift bags, wrapping paper, and ribbon. I still have the box from Tiffany’s in New York City in which, almost 20 years, came the mug I bought (about the only thing in the store I could afford); I wonder If the perfect moment will ever arrive for passing it along to someone else. It is a thing of beauty, and I just love having it and, every now and again, looking at it and remembering that visit to Tiffany's. A box can hold many things, including memories, it seems.
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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash
I could read this post to my daughter and tell her: see, I’m not the only one.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I freed my office from a few boxes and stored them in the carport.
Isabelle told me : what will you do with them ? I answered: I actually don’t know.
She said : isn’t recycling next week ? I said : I’m not yet ready
Danielle
In my case - your opening paragraph DOES apply to cats!
ReplyDeleteBut I can also identify with collecting cardboard boxes, and the two things go together. As a reluctant slave to Amazon myself, I bemoan the number of boxes coming in, only to be broken down and sent right out again into the recycle. As a dweller in a 16-unit apartment building, I see the same thing repeated amongst all the tenants. Two or three times a day, the boxes are dropped off in the entryway, then they disappear, and the flattened cardboard fills up the tall blue bins at the side of the building throughout the week.
I like to save the nicest boxes, piling them into my basement storage locker - "just in case". Because I've now used up all the real estate in that precious space, most of the boxes must go straight out to the blue bins.
But - with cats around - you can always allow some boxes to hang around for a few days as part of the playground equipment.