Zachariah Deitrich

Dumpster

There's a dumpster at my house right now.

Not because I'm doing some big kitchen remodel.

It's more of a personal remodel by decluttering.

See, I've got a hoarding impulse. Not enough to get me on a TLC show. But enough that the impulse to keep acquiring means I end up with things I don't need and/or won't need.

I come by it honestly, baked into my genes from economic downturns in generations past. Why throw something out that could be useful someday?

Most of the time a full curbie for the garbage truck is a sufficient antidote. But not always.

The dumpster has a couch in it that I used as a day bed in my office when I was sick from chemo or radiation treatment.

It has the broken post of a bat habitat from when my house was hit by a tornado.

It has the office chair of the pastor who used to live here, worn with years of use and impractical for my work-from-home career.

And there are so many boxes.

This is a chance to tell myself, I don't need that box to return or sell or transport this thing. I no longer have room for that worn out couch from my parents because I've put a treadmill there instead. It's okay to be grateful for a thing that had its season and let go of it.

This is a chance to resist the allure of consumerism. Buying and acquiring more has to face when there is no more room or time for that thing. The effort to release has a dialog with the desire to acquire.

And maybe the next time I have a piece of furniture that is end-of-life, I won't need a whole dumpster to get rid of it, because I won't have so much extra clutter in my life.

But today I'm filling up a dumpster.