The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: junk

  • When Luxuries Become Necessities

    I don’t own a clothes dryer, and I don’t particularly miss having one. It’s really not that inconvenient to hang things on a rack to dry. It takes about as long as it would to load the dryer. And I save on electricity and repair bills and space. I also don’t own a hair dryer.…

  • Kitchen Gadgets

    While packing up my kitchen for my upcoming move, I came across a garlic press. As much as I adore garlic, I’ve never used a garlic press in my entire life. I don’t even know where this one came from. That also goes for the electric ice cream churn an ex-boyfriend brought home. He felt…

  • Out I Shall Get

    The minute my boyfriend passed away, my landlady decided that even though I only rent 1/3rd the square footage (and now presumably would be using much less electricity), I should now pay 2/3rds of the electric bill. When I said that this was unfair, she told me that maybe someday I’d grow up (I’m 49)…

  • Valuable Junk?

    Oooh, I really upset my landlady’s son the other day. I asked him what he was going to do with the junk car in the back yard. He told me that, in fact, it was a collectible car and a valuable investment. He just needs to do some work on it and it can be…

  • The Futility of Accumulation

    I long to have one of those minimalist homes with wide expanses of floor space and no tchotchkes to dust or arrange. No clutter. No collections. I want to be able to move all my stuff from one house to the next in just one or two carloads. I often look around at the mess…