Garden Bed Map and Watercolor Pad

Day 230: Garden Bed Map and Watercolor Pad

 These two items are great examples of things that I've been holding onto because they might come in handy some day: vestiges of hobbies that have fallen by the wayside. How likely is it that I'll take up watercolors again? At best, I was a dabbler. A very shallow dabbler. The garden bed map is one of my little efficiency devices: with its little movable squares, I don't need to redraw the map every year, I can just move the squares around. (Even with a trowel in my hand I can't help but dream up business process improvements.) These things have been stored on our lovely built-in bookshelf for several years, annoying me by covering the pretty wood with clutter.

I am responsible for systematizing the stuff at two organizations whose primary function is to manage collections: an archive and a botanical garden. I've come to realize that the urge not to get rid of stuff-that-might-come-in-handy is almost inescapable, like the urge to turn your head and look at an accident on the freeway. It's one reason we have traffic jams.

In the midst of cleaning and organizing tools and supplies at the botanical gardens, the flat tires on the garden carts are getting replaced. Because, guess what? We found a box of replacement wheels!

Having too much stuff practically guarantees that the stuff you have won't come in handy. Instead, the stuff most likely to be useful - the stuff that should have been carefully selected to remain in your space, visible and accessible - is buried and forgotten. Just like that box of wheels got buried under a pile of broken tools and old microwaves.

The odds that I'll use this pad of watercolor paper and that garden map are pretty low. On the other hand, it's an absolute certainty that every Saturday morning while I'm drinking my coffee in my Edith Bunker chair, I'm going to see the garden map and the pad of paper cluttering up my nice bookshelf, and feel annoyed.

Except not this week.

This week, my shelf just got a little cleaner.