Another chore done

I finally cleaned the bodega!

Well, B helped and Mrs. Neighbor stood around, critiquing our efforts and lending a bit of mirth to an otherwise dour situation. For those of you who don’t know, a bodega is a room or building that is used as a storage area. Think “place to throw all your junk” and you’ve got it. Ours is accessed outside, in front of the house.

In the course of the cleaning, as it should be, we threw out a lot of stuff. All the stuff that came under the header “we might need this someday”. Why were we saving an old lampshade? Or pieces of old door handles? Or that rusted out charcoal grill which we have long since replaced? Or the hotplate with the missing on/off knob and the rusted out burner? Out it went to be piled onto the garbage heap in front of the house. To be picked up by the garbage men when they decided to next come around? Not even!

Within a half hour of placing the stuff in the garbage (and our disappearing from view), it was all gone! Collected by neighborhood scavengers no doubt. The Mexicans are an ingenious lot. They don’t throw out anything that can be fixed in some way or another. Theirs is not a “just buy a new one” society. I’m sure everything that we threw out is now being put to good use. Somebody will know how to fix the broken stuff. Somebody will scavenge parts for other things that they need to fix. Nothing goes to waste.

I knew this when I put the stuff on the garbage heap. I knew it would be gone by morning. That’s why I carefully laid everything in its’ own spot, not stacking or just tossing. I knew that somebody would find a use for our discarded items and I wanted whoever it was to be able to see what was there.

I’m glad my unwanted stuff is not just going into a landfill.