Common sense is dead and my kid's dad did it in

[LeftyMom]

Now I don't want to rag on the guy too much, because he did help me move, but was it really nessecary for him to pack up so much stuff that really ought to have been thrown away over there? I'm unpacking stuff and I'm finding wierd shit in the boxes he packed. Dead batteries, clothes our son outgrew years ago, takeout menus for restraunts in my old neighborhood, the spare key to a car we haven't had for years...

:wtf: Would it not have been easier to throw crap like that away rather than move it across town only to throw it away here?

[skygazer]

1. I've often wondered why they call it "common sense"

when it's such a rarity.... :shrug:

[liontamer]

2. no it wouldn't

if you're just shoving stuff from two rooms into a box, that's a pretty mindless activity. You can do it with fairly minimal effort, shove the boxes in a car drive them over somewhere and then you're done. If you have to sit and think about exactly what is packed, determine how useful it is, possibly consult with someone else about it's desirability then seperate the useless from the useful, remove the useless and then start packing stuff up you've really increased the work load and the possibility of error.

What if something you trashed as useless turns out to be really important or hold sentimental value. Then you've worked yourself really hard only to fuck up and piss off the person you were trying to help in the first place.

[Robb]

8. "I'll think of you..."

"...whenever I see these dead 9-volt batteries." :rofl:

[liontamer]

9. my mom kept some of my childhood clothes

:P that's what I was thinking of when I said "sentimental values"

[arwalden]

3. And If He'd Taken It Upon Himself To Make Those judgment Calls For You...

... I can easily imagine that you'd now be bitching about how he threw away stuff that you wanted to keep. (How DARE HE?!? eh?)

I'd think you should be glad that he opted for speed and efficiency rather than making judgment calls for you, and rather than taking extra time to ask which batteries (or whatever he came across) you wanted to keep and what you wanted to toss.

Try to imagine which would be worse: packing it ALL yourself and taking EXTRA TIME for sorting it ALL yourself as you packed... or... having someone help you to get it done, packed up, moved out, moved in where you can sort at your leisure?

How THOUGHTLESS of him to be so thorough!! :eyes: Good grief! Throw it away yourself if you don't want it.

Edit: "Common sense is dead"? Sounds to me like common courtesy is dead. Cut the guy some slack! Did you at LEAST thank him for helping you? If that's your attitude towards him, I'd have a hard time imagining him ever wanting to help you do something like that again.

[Kali]

4. er, why did ya still have the stuff?

Maybe he thought since you didn't get rid of it that you wanted it.

[DS1]

5. The alternative would have been risking something you really wanted

like an old battery that might have had sentimental things going on.

He took the safe route, can't say I blame him, even if it can be seen as passive agressive.

[uppityperson]

6. my ex moved:

2 boxes of empty plastic bags
1 box of old underwear with dead elastic
3 boxes of dirt
may come in useful someday

[liontamer]

10. i was recently cleaning my apt

and came across a bunch of pebbles wrapped in bubble wrap. :shrug:

I haven't tossed them yet, because I'm stumped as to which former inhabitant would have had such a thing, and whether they'd want it back

[politicat]

12. I know that one!

Did any of them have one of those little desk fountains? Some of them come with pretty little clean rocks that have been carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and put in the box to help make the tinkly sound of water running in a brook.

The fact that we Americans *IMPORT* washed, wrapped, carefully packed Chinese pebbles is another discussion entirely. (Sometimes, we deserve our trade deficit if we're dumb enough to buy rocks....)

[liontamer]

13. oh thank you!

that makes so much sense now. There is such a fountain, which has glass pebbles we put in, but it probably did come with rocks
:applause:

[politicat]

14. You're welcome!

When we got our fountain (a gift) I pulled the rocks out and stared at them for a very long time and thought about the poor, dumb kid who spends her day at a work bench, drying off rocks and the one who puts them in the plastic bag. If that is not the most shitful job in the universe, I don't know what is.

They are now a piece of Art, having been mounted with contact cement (still in the bubble wrap) and a swatch of the box (with the Made in China print) to a piece of artboard and placed in a shadow box frame with a little plaque that says "The Crazy Years"

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. If I were suckered into packing for my ex,

I don't think I would care to put things in the right place either.

Nor would I expect any thanks for the help...

[Dangerously Amused]

11. I guess it depends on what you told him.

Did you tell him just to pack stuff up? Or did you tell him to sort through the stuff first and throw out things he thought you wouldn't want? On occasions when I've helped someone pack, I know I wouldn't have felt comfortable throwing any of their stuff out, even if they asked me to. Better safe than sorry.


Baby clothes? - Could hold sentimental value. Or maybe saving for a pregnant friend or a rummage sale.

Menus from local eateries? - She may have a favorite place and want to return there some time, even though she's moved. Menu would still be handy.

Dead batteries? - Maybe saving to throw away on the "Hazardous Waste Garbage Collection Day."

Old key? - Maybe he didn't recognize it from your old car. Could be a backup key you kept for a friend or neighbor.


:shrug:





Hey - did you ever get your cell phone replaced...?

[LeftyMom]

15. We had my usual trash and recycling cans plus a designated goodwill box

and I told him that I'd rather throw away or donate something than move it if it wasn't needed. I think the problem is that he looks at every half-burnt candle and random key and is just certain that it will be needed. He's such a packrat and simply won't get rid of anything.

I don't want to sound ungrateful though, I'm glad he helped me pack and move (I had to do it on really short notice,) it's just that I unpacked boxes today that were literally 100% stuff that belonged in the trash. Wasting $2 on a moving box plus gas to get it across town is silly when it's stuff that ought to have been thrown away to begin with.