Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009

Of a Certain Age: Cleansing power of eBay

Wrapped in my ratty bathrobe and without benefit of a morning shower - I was feeling a mite puny - I spent one recent day discovering the joys of eBay.

What a wonderfully easy way to divest myself of all the things I've bought obsessively and don't really need, I thought.

What a lovely way to avert another loathsome garage sale! (If it works, anyway.)

And so there I sat, rapt, for hours - while Hannah's new and neglected puppy resorted to peeing on the rug - tapping in auction prices and the special attributes of goods I once had thought I had to have but now wished someone would take off my overburdened hands.

Most of the items were related to hobbies that had seemed good ideas but for which I found I had no time after the school day ended.

I could say that listing my goods - for my initial efforts, more than a dozen crafting books and a wealth of unused beads: pearls to stone to lampwork glass - was part of an effort to reduce the "stuff" I own, and thus become less materialistic.

And it was partly that.

Mostly, though, it marked a realization that I go entirely too gung-ho - way beyond reason - about new things I intend to make habits or hobbies.

That is: I buy lots of materials and how-to books without giving any regard to whether I have the time to use them.

Or, in the case of my beading, the talent.

To wit:

- Right now, I have a more-than-ample collection of scrapbooks to be filled with my children's lives.

I have completed one. Count 'em: one.

That means four more to go.

So why do I have about a dozen scrapbooks? I don't plan to acquire more children.

The scrapbooks are eBay's next intended residents.

- I also have quite the collection of books on the sewing of plush animals, which I intended to scatter about my classroom and use for prizes for work well done.

Thank goodness I bought no material, for the sewing machine still resides in its box, in the closet. (I bought it two years ago.)

The books now sit on eBay - or whatever stuff does on eBay.

- And so it is, too, with my beads.

I thought beading would be calming and just the hobby for me. And so I bought beads. And beads. And beads.

At first I bought only as many as I needed for a discrete project - a pair of earrings or a necklace for one of my daughters.

But soon the spending got out of hand.

I bought beads on road trips. Online. From a beading store on Harbison Boulevard.

Alas, though, I discover I have very little time, and very little talent for the improvisation required of good beaders. (One needs only so many single-bead drop earrings.)

And so, to my rescue, comes eBay. (Eventually, I think I'll try Craigslist, too, to drum up local buyers or maybe sell the whole bead enchilada.)

Only thing is, now I'm overly excited about eBay.

The day after I made my initial listings, I found myself roaming the house, trying to discover more goods to list.

So until further notice, I'd suggest that everyone in my family lock his or her doors.

This, too, could get out of hand.

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