Housecleaning 2021
At the behest of growing family chorus, I began downsizing my collection of material things in this world in 2017. In my hometown in Canada, I downsized my library (in storage) from about 10,000 books to less than 1,000 in three years, in addition to an accumulation of old school papers, furniture and knick-knacks. That project is not finished but is on forced hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. In Japan, I have done the same on a smaller scale.
In Japan, New Year’s is habitually the time of year for annual house cleaning. People want to start the new year fresh and clean. Towards that end, here is what I removed from my Tokyo apartment in 2021: two old, unused suitcases; two old, non-functioning laptop computers; two broken vacuum cleaners; two small desktop fans (powered from the USB port of a computer); two 80cm-tall, artificial Japanese New Year “kadomatsu” decorations; one heavy 1990s-era kickboard; one large bag of clothes (to the Salvation Army); about thirty old cassette tapes and their file box; an assortment of collected papers; and, about 130-150 books, mostly heavy, hardcover books.
When I report this list to some of my acquaintances, I often hear speculative queries that my apartment must be quite large. It’s not. My apartment is just very cluttered.