And you can use that.
In this time when a lot of us look to be in flux, may I just suggest that it’s even more important in time of change to remember how many things that people think of “being” one thing are also potentially other things as well. Or maybe more than one thing at the same time.
When I was moving from NYC back to Portland I bought something like eight twin-sized bedsheets REAL cheap. Used them as packing materials. Some for stuff that I knew I might not unpack for as much as a couple of years and might have to move more than once before that unpacking happened. Worked like a charm. Was cheaper than bubblewrap and the like, great for delicates, and left me with yards and yards of fabric for use in my various projects. A few even got used as, who knew? bedsheets. ;->
I bought or traded for a few New York-themed t-shirts from projects I was connected to. Used them as packing material and gave them to folks in Portland like the couple I stayed with at first.
I also used about half a cubic meter (really) of food for the same purpose. Mostly low budget dried mushrooms and of that mostly cloud ear mushrooms. Some dried shitakes. Some Malaysian ramen, too. A few bags of figs and dried apples in corners that needed a soft cushion. Protected stuff quite effectively and gave me a really important financial cushion in that first couple of years.
I was desperately short of money that first couple of years, living on less than a thousand dollars a month. And with a paralyzed left wrist, bedridden about one day in ten and, effectively, housebound about one day in four. So having enough of something to eat that wouldn’t go bad and wouldn’t cost me any of my painfully short cash or require shopping played a key role in getting me through. I didn’t finish the last of those mushrooms for about four years.
I also varnished a couple of wine crates and used those, bare, with the labels stuck right on the sides and packing tape bracing the corners, for their original intended purpose. As shipping means. UPS was fine with it. And then I used them as furniture once they arrived. Same thing with a couple of steel wire file boxes covered in just enough cardboard to keep them enclosed. In a few more boxes while the box was a conventional shipping box I used individual sheets of lightweight wood as dividers and in the base of boxes as strengtheners. Usually parts of other wine crates that I had broken down. Once here they became shelves and the like. Before I started I had been careful to varnish them to match the crates that I shipped.
I also bought about one hundred wuxi tea cups cheap from a place in Chinatown. I knew that there was nowhere in Portland that sold the like. So I bought dozens of them, along with something like eight Chinese teapots and some hand carved miniatures. Once here they all became trade goods. Still, notably, wrapped in Chinese language newspapers. Which was a real treat for most people who live in other parts of the country and don’t get to do their shopping in a vibrant Chinatown any time that they feel like it. These cups, pots, etc. were something to give to somebody who gave me a ride to the store. Somebody who had furniture they were getting rid of. Etc.
We are in rough times. I see no reason to believe that they’re on the way to getting easier.
Those of us who intend to make it through, especially those of us who are longer on brains and creativity than cash, need to do all that we can to use that to get us by.
So please, look around you. And before you take on any large task, think what means to I have to do this and be doing something else at the same time?
Perfessor Multigeek 