Top Ten Things to Never Throw Away When Organizing

~ John W. Howell
Photo by Tim van der Kuip on Unsplash

I am back from my break and want to say I accomplished plenty. I was able to complete my manuscript and got a long way into the first edit. I also had a scare on Thursday. I fired up my Mac, and my Word app was missing, along with a whole week of edits. (No, I didn’t save it in several places like I usually do.) Panic was replaced by research by The Producer, and by reinstalling Word, all was recovered. (Whew)

It is good to be back. I missed you all, and I’ll be around to see you as usual.

This post ran on April 23, 2018. I think it still might be helpful.

Top Ten Things to Never Throw Away When Organizing

The inspiration for this list is wondering why we hang onto things in case they may come in useful someday. This list tries to understand the motivation for holding onto items that may be past their point of usefulness.

10 When organizing, do not throw away that eight-track cassette player. If you do, at best, you’ll hate yourself in the morning. At worst, you’ll see that very same model for sale on eBay, and the last bid is $10,000. (Well, that will teach you to be impetuous after twenty-five years of storage, huh, Eric?)

9 When organizing, do not throw away that autographed photo of Tiny, the WWF champ. If you do, at best, it will be well hidden in a black plastic bag. At worst, Tiny just started as your garbologist after being released from self-esteem therapy and discovers the photo at the bottom of your trash can. (I’ll bet you can guess why he is pounding on your front door, can’t you, Emmanuel? Here is a hint. Grab those running shoes and head out the back door. Your house and belongings can be replaced.)

8 When organizing, do not throw away that hand-knit Christmas turtleneck sweater Aunt Helen gave you when you were thirteen. If you do, at best, no one will know. At worst, you realize your mistake at the reading of Aunt Helen’s will where she leaves you her entire fortune if you wear the sweater once a week for a year. (Looks like she suspected you didn’t like it, Edward. Too bad you tossed it last week.)

7 When organizing, do not throw away those naked pictures of you at the beach. If you do, at best, you shredded them first. At worst, you suddenly discover them on Tumblr on a site called “Naked and Crazy.” (Better think of a good story, Elias, since HR wants to talk to you about a “morals clause” violation in your employment contract.)

6 When organizing, do not throw away old tax records. If you do, at best, your town’s dump is very secure. At worst, you realize when you are shopping at the food store, and your card is denied that you no longer are the only person with your social security number. (It looks like those stocks, bonds, and bank accounts are gone, too, Eugene. It looks like you need to call the police.)

5 When organizing, do not throw away all your children’s school drawings and report cards. If you do, at best, they won’t care. At worst, your children will want those items to relive their experiences with their kids. (Now, what are you going to do, Erik? I suppose you could try to recreate the drawings from memory. Better yet, ask the neighbor if you can borrow theirs.)

4 When organizing, do not throw away that old portable TV. If you do, at best, you’ll never miss it. At worst, you’ll need it to see the last half of the Final Four Championship game since your internet and cell service went down. (Now, aren’t you sorry you relied on twenty-first-century technology, Enzo? Just think, you could have seen the game finish on that twentieth-century set with the rabbit ears. Now you have to wait to read the news.)

3 When organizing, do not throw away that almost new tire that you had to take off your 1978 Chevrolet to replace the front two. If you do, at best, your current car will have bigger wheels. At worst, you will have a blowout on your new vehicle, which has no spare. (See, you could have at least used that tire as a temporary solution, Earl. Well, maybe not.)

2 When organizing, do not throw away that power tool that quit working twelve years ago. If you do, at best, your new device will keep working. At worst, your new gadget will need a small clip that broke, which is unavailable at the parts store but was intact on the one you threw away. (Come on, Emiliano, this would never happen in a million years.)

1 When organizing, do not throw away those worn-out shoes. If you do, at best you’ll enjoy the closet space. At worst, once they are gone, you realize you have nothing to wear to mow the lawn and work in the garden. (Well, now, Elvin, you have a triage problem on your remaining shoes. I know there are some favorites in there, but you gotta make a choice.)

103 thoughts on “Top Ten Things to Never Throw Away When Organizing”

  2. Nice to have you back, John, Bummer on the scare but yeah to the Producer for saving the day!

    i.xang tell you how often I’ve gotten rid of something, only to need it thr next day!

    .

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Welcome back, John! I’m glad you had a productive break from social media. I’ve always been of the “don’t throw anything away in case you might need it” persuasion. Thank you for the affirmation. 😉

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  5. I think the moral of this story is to NOT organize – that’s fine with me!!
    Good to see you back, John!

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  9. I felt your panic over the missing Word app and edits, John. Something similar happened to me with Book 5, and my tech-savvy friend helped me recover it. I just recently cleaned out MANY things in our storage area. So far zero regrets. Glad you’re back!

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    1. Thank you for the welcome back message, Teri. Yeah that missing app had me going for a while. It is always nice to have someone talk one down off the ledge. I’m glad there are no regrets on the toss.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. It’s good that the Producer solved the Word problem, John. It’s nice to have you back, and great that your break from the social media world was so productive. Yes, things not in use at the moment accumulate over the years, but one must always give thought to throwing away things to try to be more organized.

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  13. Welcome back, John — glad to hear your break was so productive! And thanks for this list, too. I can usually part without pain the things that are broken, unmendable, outdated, etc. It’s the memories associated with certain things that I have a tough time with (like those children’s drawings, ha!)

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  15. That Word re-install story sent a shiver up my spine, John. I do back up most of any work I am doing…as I have paid the price in the past by not doing that. But an application “going away”…that would be a new one for me. Glad your break was productive!

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  17. I am so glad you enjoyed your blogging break and finished your manuscript!! Way to go! And what a panic to discover the work lost. So glad the producer came to your rescue! I love this list. These fears could possibly account for why we all have accumulated so much junk. 🙂 Welcome back!

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  18. Welcome back, John. I’m glad to hear you had a productive week. I love this list because my husband and I have often thrown away something that we later (usually much later) could have used. My mom was a bit of a hoarder in part because a very long time ago she threw out all my brother’s comic books only to find out that they were worth a lot of money. It became really hard for her to throw anything out after that 😉

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  19. Welcome back, John. Glad your break was fruitful and productive. I know just what you mean about gasping when technology bites you in the rear. Lately it’s been a daily ritual around the Ranch. 😵‍💫 I don’t do well with things that don’t work and lately technology is at the top of the short list.

    Terrific list of things not to throw away. While I don’t have an 8-track player, I might expand that list to include cassette players. Then again, all my very best playlists are on tape so nix that silly notion. LOL Have a terrific Monday and may the good vibes carry through all week long.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Monika. I think when the week starts great it is much easier to keep it going. I lost all my cassettes in a flood. My old 78 Toyota FJ was the only place I could play them. It is gone too so I guess that is the way it goes. I hope you have a good week.

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  20. Natural disasters are the worst. Sorry for the loss of your FJ as well as your cassette collection. When I was married I experienced a fire where many irreplaceable items were destroyed. But like you said, it’s just ‘things.’

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  22. This is an old joke among teachers. We hang on to some teaching material for 20+ years for that one day that we may need it. Usually, this stuff eventually gets dumped and you wonder why you hung on to it.

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  25. Glad you are back, John, and all is well with you and your computer. I can relate to each and every one of your items in the list. Too many times I have thrown away a variety of things that I so wish I had today. Oh well! Such is life!

    Welcome back, John.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Alls I got left of the many collections I once had are my baseball cards and a small-er collection of assorted things. Of course, I do not miss the two storage units, garage and basement that housed my collections!

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  37. ” I fired up my Mac, and my Word app was missing, along with a whole week of edits. (No, I didn’t save it in several places like I usually do.) “

    What the hell is the matter with you, pal? I save after every word, comma, period, etc. When finished for the day, I copy to two thumb drives (in case one gets corrupted). And then email the file to myself. Now I’ve got three places where my genius words are safe and sound. (My last novel was 172,000 words. Good luck re-writing all that.)

    I’m glad you got your stuff back, but jeeze, Louise!

    On a side note: Do you know about reading your novel backwards? I read about that while writing Mahoney. So, after umpteen edits between myself and my editor, I sat down one night and stared to read my book from end to beginning. Paragraph by paragraph (5,300!). And you know what? It works. I can’t tell you how many things I changed because of that endeavor.

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    1. I haven’t tried backwards yet. I do the read aloud function which finds a lot of stuff. I know better than to not save and I promise to follow your advice.. Thanks for that.

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  38. Alwas a handy list. Thank you, John!

    On a serious note, in our younger days, throwing away stuff was rare. There was always someone who could use it, as we did for stuff from others.

    But throwing things away and buying newer ones is much more popular now. As is the increasing size of landfills and oceanic dumping.

    Here’s hoping we have to throw nothing away 🙂

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