The Personal Garbage Dump

What are you doing with that set of encyclopedias that your dad bought you, representing an important gift for its time?

It’s probably sitting in a corner collecting dust along with a lot of other things that were once important to you. It symbolizes how time has passed it by. It’s all because something better came along to replace it. In today’s world that would be the Internet.

What’s in your personal garbage dump? (Share your stuff in the comments box)

Mine includes the following:

• Slide rule
• Numerous tape recorders and players
• Music tapes, vinyl records
• Blank tapes
• Big speaker boxes
• Record turntable
• Outdated ski equipment
• Cheap power tools
• Numerous board games
• Books about business
• Clusters of floppy diskettes – 5.25” & 3.5”
• Graphite shaft golf clubs
• My first cell phone
• Squash racquets, baseball equipment
• Letraset (???)
• Fountain Pens
• Numerous CD players
• Regular baking stuff
• A whole host of outdated PC games
• A bunch of clunky telephones with cords
• Regular colour television
• Bigger stereo/surround sound speakers
• Conventional batteries (only use rechargeable now)

Soon to be joined by:

• Music CD’s
• Suits, Ties & Dress shirts
• Ordinary stove (not self-cleaning and not a smooth top either)
• A horde of computer equipment (constantly changing or just broken)
• Electric piano (non-computerized, keep it around for practice still)
• MP3 players without shuffle capability
• Laptop computer
• Guitar effects unit
• Cheaper guitar cables
• Several battery operated or outdated guitar tuners
• Smooth guitar picks which constantly slip out of your fingers
• Midi sound modules replaced by virtual instruments

Garage sales and eBay are good places to find a lot of the items from the world’s garbage dump. Everyone is hoping to get a small portion of their original investment back.

Good news. There are people out there that find value in this junk. I really don’t see why.

Maybe we should look more to the less fortunate who might find value in these items we don’t need anymore. Unfortunately, there are lots of people, organizations and businesses that take advantage of this situation.

I recall several companies that collected old clothing on the premise that it was going to go to people in less fortunate countries. Turns out they were selling the cut up material as rags. They squabbled intensely over the price of the second-hand forklift equipment they used to process your gifts.

...most parasites do