When Rubber Hits the Road

Today the rubber hit the road - Rubbermaid that is.
In a simple, last minute downsizing effort on this scorching hot Maine evening I sent Kiera across the street with a shoe box sized plastic tote and a camera to document the exchange. Call her my secret downsizing agent. I asked her to explain to whoever answered the door at the neighbor's house that we were returning their plastic tote after keeping it for several years. Then, snap a picture with whoever will pose with it.

Kiera came bouncing back in a few minutes and explained that both Fran and Jacob looked a bit confused but accepted the tote and posed as requested. I'm sure Nancy will get a chuckle out of the exchange once I explain it to her. What remains to be seen is whether she will recall lending me the container full of those little craft beads that the kids design and then have me melt together with the iron. At the time she willingly handed over the craft items with one simple request - please return the container as it was part of a recent reorganization of her den closet. Obviously the return did not happen until I was spurred on by the challenge - I hope she'll forgive me!

This particular downsize lead me to look around at all of the Rubbermaid totes that now sit empty. With our reorganizing, selling, and donating we simply have less stuff to store neatly in totes. How easy it was to feel that we were "organized" when we continually bought new organizational systems for our stuff. How funny that it never occurred to us to just get rid of said stuff! How amazing that an entire industry has been built around people's need to keep material goods stowed away.

For now our totes will sit stacked and dormant in the basement. Perhaps I'll find a new home for them someday - other than a landfill that is.