Several Truths Observed on the Occasion of Moving the Art Supplies

[hrj]

Found a nice little compact 6-drawer cabinet for the new Art Supplies Home -- it even comes with casters. Moved the contents of the old, clunky art cabinet into their new home and meditated on the following:

* If you don't remember that you own something, you might as well not own it.
* If you no longer own a typewriter, you no longer need to own a box of EZ-erase typing paper and a folder of carbon paper.
* The note cards that were way too twee for you to use when you were in high school are no more appropriate when you're on the far side of 50.
* Felt markers have a finite lifespan. Assume they have passed it without testing them individually.
* Continuing to hang on to the Texas Instruments SR-50 calculator you got in '74 may increase your geek cred but is of no practical use. Particularly since it hasn't worked for the last 20 years.
* Oil paint tubes have a finite lifespan. Assume they have passed it unless you can remember when you bought them.
* If you don't remember that you own something, you might as well not own it.
* Construction paper is cheap. You don't need to keep pieces with writing on one side "because they're still good for stiffening something else".
* When you're more than 5 years out of grad school, go ahead and throw away those extra blue books and scantron forms.
* Stick-on sheet feeding labels have a finite lifespan. They are also cheap. You know what to do.
* In the 21st century, should an adult choose to do anything so retro as to write a letter on actual stationary, it is not suitable to use stationary with unicorns or dragons on it.
* If you don't remember that you own something, you might as well not own it.
* Standard graph paper has many uses; log-log graph paper has many fewer uses. Can you think of any that crossed your path in the last five years? That you couldn't plot much more easily in Excel?
* Glue-sticks have a finite lifespan. Keep only the newest.
* There is a limit to the number of #2 pencils and Bic stick pens a body is likely to use in a lifetime. Also: stick pens have a finite lifespan.
* If you don't remember that you own something, you might as well not own it.

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you can write letters with unicorns and dragons on the paper when you're writing to children.

[zeborah]

In the 21st century, should an adult choose to do anything so retro as to write a letter on actual stationary, it is not suitable to use stationary with unicorns or dragons on it.

Actually it seems to me that if one is going to do something so very retro, unicorns and dragons (or in my case, zebras and kittens) merely add that certain something to the occasion.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

One advantage to moving often, one gets to look at everything one owns when packing and unpacking, and can decide (preferably before packing it) if it is time to get rid of it.

However, I think that the unicorn and dragon stationary sounds perfect for adult correspondence. :-)

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

* If you don't remember that you own something, you might as well not own it.
I need this tacked up all over my house.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree totally. Also, as klwilliams says, you might need it to write to a child. :)

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

I think I had a note that said that once, but I can't remember now ;>

[etaine-pommier.livejournal.com]

lol

[etaine-pommier.livejournal.com]

It's under something ;)

[twistle.livejournal.com]

only one I have even a hair of an issue with is - I seem to be able to lose an infinite number of @2 pencils - so more is generally better....

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

That hits close to home :)
I have my art supplies, mom's art supplies, and grandpa's drafting supplies. And paper - lined, graph, carbon, you name it. I even have knight and wizard stationary.
:-S

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

the levels of attachment to physical things:

1. I need it.
2. I will need it in the near future.
3. I might need it at some point, and I might as well keep it around.
4. It is taking up space. Does it have a place to be out of the way?
5. I don't need it, and it's taking up space.
6. I resent that it's taking up space.
7. It needs to go away.
8. How can I get rid of it in a good way?
9. If someone can't take it off my hands very soon, I will take desperate measures.
10. Yay - it's out of my life!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you forgot #11: "Damn, I used to have one of those and now I need it. Why in the world did I get rid of it?"

[fosveny.livejournal.com]

If you ever have to write hardcopy to me, I ask that you *do* use the dragons or unicorns.

Pretty please?