29 August 2006

Being Charitable

I have seen that some people have no problems with friends and family borrowing their clothes. Not me, however. Simply hate people borrowing my clothes. I was really annoyed and severely scolded my sister once, for borrowing my pants and coat for a school play without my permission. I know each and every piece of clothing that I have and can tell when I have a shirt or pants missing.

And it’s not just clothes; realize that I am quite possessive about all my stuff. Though I do lend stuff to people, I make it a point to write it down – ‘who took what’ and on ‘what date’. Like the time a colleague borrowed RM50 from me (he has still not given it back yet). Not sure why, but I notice that a lot of people have a habit of borrowing stuff from people and not giving it back.

Marriage has changed me a lot. My wife keeps pinching my T-shirts and I have no option but let her wear them. She’s totally different from me and she’s not at all possessive about her stuff – apart from me I guess.

Anyway this post is not about possessiveness, rather the opposite. As most of my regular visitors know, I am leaving for UK soon. It was amazing how much stuff that I had accumulated over four years I had been here in Kedah. Have been able to sell off most of the items but I still have loads more including shelf full of books, both in my office and house.

A few days back I came to a very painful decision – to give away most of my books. It was hard and I went through them for the last time and found some great stuff that I had bought sometime back but had not even read. It took me some time but I finally separated them out into groups – ones close to my heart/ hard to get books and others. From the later, I gave some to my close friends and today I donated the rest (three boxes) to my nearest library. I have a habit of writing my name on the first page of my books but the guys down at the library said that it would not be a problem.

I have also separated all the clothes that I don’t want or can’t fit and put them into one old big suitcase. Tried one of my old jeans but it was too tight. Yeah, I must come to terms with the fact that I won’t go back to a 30 inches waist anytime soon (if at all). One of my friends said that he could pass them to some charitable organizations.

Thought I would be sad but I am not. Never realized that giving away stuff could feel so good.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you want to give MONEY to charity let me know lol

J said...

Haha.
Poor thing.
Don't feel bad - I think the majority of the population will not fit into their old jeans...

Better to just give it away to charity.
:)
(Good for you!)

Reta said...

ehhhhhhhhhhh you moving there haaa?

i didnt know ur url changed also.. apalah.. im outdated

Anonymous said...

true. many people borrowed things and never return them esp. books and VCD/CD.

when we do not wish to lend people things doesn't mean we are possessive of our things or we are selfish... personal stuffs. once a friend asked me to lend her my comb when she forgotten to bring one, i straight away say no way. then some people like to borrow my crash helment... i dare not say no. i don't like people borrowing my crash helmet since it is something i wear on my head and imagine other people wearing it. eek!

wow adam! you have so many books in your collection? pity you are not in penang because if you are, you can pass the books to me. :)

shifting house/place is always like that - no choice but to give away some things that we treasured.

*lynne* said...

yeah it *is* a good feeling to give stuff away, especially if it's stuff that you know is still in good condition but you've just not used them for years and years and years, indicating you don't really need them so might as well give them away where they *are* useful to someone.

besides - to live a simpler life, with fewer material possessions, is something many of us need to work on!

Pity about those books, tho.. I would have loved to have gotten first dibs onthose before the library :-)

all the best with your downsizing & packing!

Dilip Mutum said...

Lilian: Actually I am the one in need of a little charity here. Moving to UK soon and the exchange rates are killing us.

J: Looking at those jeans motivated me to exercise. Guess I have to get some other thing to motivate me.

Cyber-red: For a few years.

I only got a free url. Shows that you are visiting after sometime ;-)

Lucia: My same feelings exactly. Won't want to wear someone else's old smelly helmet.

Lynne: I am happy that I can share my stuff with other people. They were lying there catching dust anyway. I can always build up a collection anytime int he future.

sweetspirits said...

Ar Adam
It's actually good to clear it away.
I am similar i keep so many things ,and well i share with my daughters of cause.
But i use to keep everything , so much of this and that ,until i came across an article Declutter your house Declutter your mind , it was really good .
If you haven't used something for a yr store it and if in six months you haven't used it give it away.

Or of course i decided i'd store give away , or ebay and yes i've sold about 2k worth of things on ebay in the past 12 months .Of course i still did give alot away.
cheerz

Dilip Mutum said...

sweetspirits: I have sold off a lot of my stuff too - to my colleagues. I might try ebay too.

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