Yesterday morning, on impulse, I went down to the basement and dragged my Bissell carpet/floor cleaner upstairs, taped its manual to it, and put it out on the curb with a “free” sign on it. I don’t need it any more, because I don’t own an area rug any more. I bought the previous carpet for my previous cat, and it is too complicated to explain why.

Then, for good measure, I got one of the white square IKEA Kallax units that was also in the basement and rolled it up the stairs and out to the curb as well. It’s a little too heavy for me to carry, but if I tip it end-over-end, the process is expeditious. I didn’t bother to put a “free” sign on the shelf unit; people take them routinely because they are plain, white, and sturdy. I know that because I got rid of a couple of other shelf units last year. I still have another one in my basement, and will put that one out later on when I don’t have anything to put in it. And I still have five more in my bedroom. This is also complicated to explain.

This year, the city added a second weekly trash collection day for my neighborhood, but still nobody puts any trash out on Tuesdays, and the trash truck usually doesn’t come anyway. We still save our trash for Fridays. I figured I could use the Tuesday trash collection that does not exist as my excuse for cluttering up the sidewalk with useful objects.

My next door neighbor had put out a box containing an artificial Christmas tree, too, with a sign saying, “Free! All the little lights work!” so I figured he was thinking the same way I was.

Then I left the house. I have found it better to abandon my house when I abandon possessions on the sidewalk, or otherwise I spend too much time listening for the trash truck and checking my front door camera, and I prefer to save that kind of fussing for deliveries.

When I came home a few hours later, the floor cleaner was gone but the shelf unit wasn’t. I went inside and took a nap. When I woke up, the shelf unit was gone too.

The Christmas tree is still there, though. But Charlie, my next door neighbor, is very young and he doesn’t face the existential crisis of Too Much Stuff that I still face, even though I have gotten rid of much of it, so he will cope if he has to take the tree back in.

I’m not taking the tree, is what I’m saying. I already have an artificial Christmas tree in my basement. It is one of the few things I’m not getting rid of down there.

This process of yeeting my possessions into the care of passersby has been going on for over three years, since my husband died. I apparently had a great many possessions at one point. I can’t for the life of me figure out how I got so many things, where I put them, and what I was thinking, except for the cat carpet, which made perfect sense.