Don't Own Broken Things

Rules for a Small Home, installment 1

38 days till we move.

Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

As we pack our family up and prepare to live out of suitcases for a few months, I’m going to share some of my Rules for a Small Home that have helped keep a family of five in a 500-square-foot home.

Ironically, the first rule I’ll share is one that I’ve broken the most.

Don’t own broken things.

To clarify, I’m not talking about the chipped coffee mug that you still use every day, nor your grandmother’s broken necklace that is still a precious heirloom even if you can’t wear it.

I’m talking about the things that aren’t functional anymore, and hold no sentimental value, but I hold onto them “in case” I ever fix them, or because I feel guilty that I spent money on them in the first place.

With those items, I have to face the reality:

• either they will take fifteen minutes or less to fix, and I can easily do that RIGHT NOW,

• or they are something that I must pay someone else to fix, and I can easily schedule that RIGHT NOW,

• or they are garbage and must be recycled or thrown out RIGHT NOW.

I might protest that I have an item that would take more than fifteen minutes to repair, but I’m confident I can do it myself. Great! Put it on the calendar. Fix it. In my experience, though, they often take a lot less time to fix than I expect, or else I start trying to fix them, only to realize that I might as well throw them out.

I hate throwing things out, but in the past three days I have proudly:

• donated to a store that will repair or refurbish:

  • the digital camera whose screen broke three weeks after I got it (kept it three years after it broke)

  • four dead laptops (kept them eighteen months to six years after they died)

• glued:

  • fairy wings (these things take a beating, and they’d only been broken for twelve days)

  • a teapot lid handle (broke two months ago)

  • a tiara (broke two months ago)

  • a shelf (broke seven months ago)

• taped:

  • many, many books

• screwed back on:

  • a weak dresser knob (this one keeps breaking)

• sewed:

  • broken button loop on a dress (broke four days ago)

• threw out:

  • the stovetop espresso maker whose handle had melted (twenty months ago)

  • many, many stained items of clothing (ruined two to twelve months ago)

  • a leaky vaporizer (broke six months ago)

  • two leaky water bottles (broke three years ago)

  • one totally broken homemade pair of fairy wings and ordered a replacement online (broke twelve days ago, same time as the other pair of fairy wings, it was an epic day)

If I weren’t facing the prospect of packing up and storing garbage, these things would still be broken.

I’m sure there are other broken things in my house that will surface as we get ready to move.

But hopefully, I won’t own anymore broken things when we finally pack up the house.