A Thing a Day 1

Day 1 - Eleven old issues of Consumer Reports magazine

It's easy now, but I know it won't always be this easy.

I had another engagement today that meant several more hours in the car, so I didn't have much time at all to figure out what I wanted to do, but I wasn't going to bail on day 1.

I have a laundry basket in my room, filled to the brim.  It was stuff that was on a bookcase in my room or on the floor next to it.  For the most part, these were organized stacks, mostly magazines, sorted by type of magazine.  But then we had a heat spell and needed to quickly clear off that bookcase so we could put a large box fan on it since it was right under a window.

My neat stacks became a jumbled mess, an ogre in the corner staring me down.  So, I quickly dove into the basket tonight and came out with a handful of magazines.  I normally keep one year of Consumer Reports around, in case I want to check a previous issue for something we're now thinking of buying.  I know that they have an annual car issue, but I don't know if they review everything else (vacuums, freezers, TVs) on a yearly basis or not, so I don't know if that's actually a valuable plan or not.

When we recently purchased our new vacuum cleaner, our friend actually signed into his account at our house so we could read reviews online.  That might be the better way to go, long-term, just pay for an online account.  For now, I like reading the magazine, so I'd probably want to still get the magazine, but there's probably no reason to keep old issues around.  Especially since they also publish a yearly book of reviews.   Someday I might be interested in an online subscription to the print magazine on Kindle or iPad, but right now I prefer to keep getting the printed ones.  I remember reading the magazine as a kid at my grandpa's house, then in college I subscribed.  When I moved, I forgot to move my subscription, so the next P.O. Box holder probably enjoyed close to a year's worth before I remembered and resubscribed at my new place.  But I've been pretty much reading Consumer Reports ever since college and find it a very informative and valuable (and enjoyable) thing to read.

Anyhow, I was quickly able to pull out 11 issues, all older than a year.  I know there are some places that take recycled magazines for others to read, but I'm not sure about the value of reviews of products over a year old and I didn't want to research where to donate them, so they went in the recycle bin.

I'm sure as time goes on, finding stuff to get rid of won't be as easy.  Tonight my mom gave me a sweatshirt that I bought from a really cool store back in high school that she had come across in a box in her attic. The store has since disappeared, and the sweatshirt has the logo "KPLZ 101.5 FM" and they dropped that decades ago, but the sweatshirt is still roomy (I must have swam in it in high school) and in excellent shape and I don't own many sweatshirts, so for now I'm keeping it.  But I may decide to make it a ATAD item in the months to come.  Don't know yet.

But yay, throwing stuff out.  Exciting.