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| Actually, you did on Facebook. Socks win! Spiffy graph brought to you by Hawaiian Donkey Punch |
Now, let's define hoarding. When I have a collection of old, worn out wheels that I hold onto for no reason, it's because I'm thrifty! When you do it, you have a problem! I'm kidding, but only a little. Right now in my derby box, I have thirty two wheels that are no longer bout or practice able. Why the heck am I keeping them??? I know that I have some vague idea that I could use them for outdoor skating, but do I need thirty two wheels for that? The answer is a definitive NO. I should throw out or recycle the other twenty four, and yet they're still sitting in my box. Do I really think I'm going to have a catastrophic wheel crises where I would need 32 extra wheels? No. I know I'm not the only one who has this problem; my good friend Beth Row carries a huge and heavy box around with her crammed with wheels for every occasion. When we get to the bout, she decides what she wants to wear and then she has to dig through a bunch of wheels to find the ones in the best condition.
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| Look at the dust on some of them...oops. |
Let's see what else I have in my box; ok, I have a ton of bearings that I actually use when I swap out wheels, or need to replace a bearing or clean my other set, so that doesn't count. Hmmm. I have three old toe stops; I know I should keep two of them for outdoor skating as well, but what would happen if one of them broke too? This is the kind of thinking that let's me keep trash!
Every time I upgrade my pads, I tend to hold onto them; I kept my original Protec knee pads for almost four years until two weeks ago when I decided I had enough clutter in my house, and I finally pitched them. Yea me! Unfortunately, I still have my 187s hanging around for no purpose. It's nice that I have two and a half pairs of wrist guards piled in the corner of my spare room, but why do I need so many? I don't even want to get into how many handkerchiefs I have or stockings that only have a few rips in them!
I have a serious problem.
So, how can we fix our hoarding issues? Honestly, I think hoarding can be helped by turning it into sharing. Every league has a crop of newbies who come to us with nothing; some of them will skate with the crappiest of wheels and bearings, or terrible protective gear. I'm sure that someone somewhere gave you or let you "borrow indefinitely" pads or wheels or a shirt or something. It's time to pay it forward: organize a newbie gear party, and have your vets bring in their extra crap that might still be useable. Think about how much happier you'll be with getting rid of stuff you aren't using, and giving it to someone who will appreciate it. (Please don't share mouth guards.) If you don't want to give away all of your cool derby shirts, MC Fyte suggests you can turn them into a really cool quilt. Think about how awesome that would be for someone to do for a retiring derby sister? If I could sew, I would totally attempt that!
If you have suggestions on recycling our hoarded gear, please share! Stop the madness!
