359: Trash or Treasure?

In the process of moving, I had to discard loads of things.  Room 217 was practically half stockroom so I found myself clearing most of it.  The room that we're moving into is also a storage room so imagine the frustration of moving and getting settled in when you still have a lot of things to put out.

Piles of old clothes and toys and kitchenware were thrown into bags.  We thought it was impossible but we emptied the room after two hours.  It could have been faster if we didn't look into those bags.  Early on I already told my housemates that we should not even open the bags and boxes and just throw them out.  But there's always that curious part in us that wants to know whether there could be something useful.

I am not interested in fabric so everytime we open a box full of folded cloth I'd yell out "trash!" but my female housemate would say keep it.  I'm partial to toys so they always get saved.  In the end we only managed to throw half of the things that we have all agreed to dispose.

The stuff that eventually made it to the rubbish stack outside the house were not exactly the kind of trash that comes out of your kitchen so we decided to move them to the refuse area outside the compound.  There, an old woman waited excitedly for our arrival.

The Refuse Site (circled) outside our compound on the right.

The little old lady had the softest voice I've heard but she was far from weak.  She carried each bag all by herself and she made it look effortless.  Each time we got back to her with more trash, she looked more and more like a fisherman reeling in the biggest catch of the day.  I was somehow delighted that we are not exactly putting all of the "trash" to waste.

This afternoon we threw a few more items and as expected, she was there on guard at the refuse site.  She looked a bit disappointed that we didn't bring in as much as we did yesterday but she still gladly took charge of the unloading and said the gentlest "thank you" that I've heard (in Chinese anyway).

Quick Question of the day: Are you a pack rat?  Why or why not?
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