Should an Old Fragrance Be Forgot

In many places around the globe, tradition has it that on New Year's Eve you must throw something out the window. The gesture has at least three goals: to make room for new beginnings. It is also a way of "giving back" and not be accused of hogging. And finally it's how we get rid of stuff that's been weighing on us. At the stroke of midnight, the clatter of old china and crockery crashing on the sidewalks in cities around the world reminds you that even in hard times, this ritual is still in practice. Around midnight, avoid sidewalks.

But New Year's Eve is also a time for reckoning and measuring time. We take a look at the real and metaphorical balance sheet of our life. Profits? Hardly any. Mistakes? All over the place. Losses? Huge, and getting worse. If you're as superstitious as I am, you know you have to throw something out by midnight if only to appease the gods with a final, declarative toss. Hurling things out, however, is not supposed to be too easy. You don't get rid of something you never wanted. Rather, you must part with something, you must sacrifice it. Otherwise it won't count. Old snowshoes, very old cashmere sweater, every Hermès tie you've owned and will never want to be seen with again, DVDs you'll probably never watch in this lifetime, the Fast-Abs paraphernalia you've never assembled and never, ever, ever will. Not to be confused with those things that are sacred and which you have to keep, even if you're dying to get rid of them.

For some, however, New Year's is not so much a time for throwing things out as for trying to bring them back: neglected friendships that have been sitting on the brink; comatose objects we continue to own but can't do a thing with: old printers, defunct laptops, expired DustBusters. And what about those books and CDs people borrowed and never returned and are now permanently out of print?

This is where the Internet comes in. My high-school English textbook: after 40 years, I found it on eBay for less than $5. I would have paid $100 to own it. "Crime and Punishment," No. 89 in the Classics Illustrated comics series: resurrected from oblivion through a friend of a friend of a friend. "Wuthering Heights" in its orange-white-orange Penguin edition: found in a second-hand bookstore in London. Then there are the unrecoverables, things they don't make any longer. That special 18-year-old blended Scotch whiskey: never again! This live-recording of "The Well-Tempered Clavier" taped in Austria: gone underground! Those wonderful shoes made in Scandinavia: they're made in China now. As for David Frost interviewing Maria Callas: in your dreams!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123033755038236441.html

One thing is an old printer that probably still works but has a broken tray ... It's been sitting in our garage for years.

The accumulation of stuff really wears you down. It's a nonstop battle, and one that I never seem to win.

i've been able to pare down a bit because i'm still not settled and move every couple of years, but i still have an amazing amount of crap. granted, a good deal of the 'junk' is boxed up and in my dad's basement, but i still feel like i'm fight a losing battle against 'stuff.'

my sister and i joke with my dad that when he finally moves, we're taking the good furniture, photos and a few other things and then burning down the house. he's been in the house for more than 20 years and he is such a pack rat. :scared:

My Dad wore Old Spice. I get upset when I smell it, bcasue it brings back memories long buried. He wasn't a kind man, but he worked his ass off till the day he died. And that smell just brings back visions of him coming home tired and dirty from work, hoping only for a hot meal and a shower, and no interaction with his kids. The story here was just the opposite, of a kind man whose son adored him, and only wanted to be reminded of him when he could.