Just in Case

As I look at many of the items I have accumulated in my home over the years, I see things that I have kept that are not very useful. As a child, when I left home my mother would remind me to take certain items just in case.  This included a hankie or tissue in my pocket and, if rain were predicted, an umbrella. Perhaps that is why there is a wide range of items that I maintain or keep in case I might need them. There are several examples:

Jars of sauces and condiments in my refrigerator that are almost full, and were used once for a special dish. I haven’t used them in months, but I keep these jars just in case I decide to make something again that requires that ingredient. My daughter recently visited and threw out those that had passed their expiration dates. I have started a new collection.

Plastic forks and spoons that are included when I order Chinese food. These implements never get used, as I order this food to eat at home and I prefer my own silverware. But I can’t throw them out- just in case I decide to go on a picnic one day or someone calls who needs them.

I have more than a dozen glass flower vases, of various colors, that came with birthday and other gifts I received over the years. I will never need them all simultaneously, but they are quite pretty, so I keep them. They will come in handy in case I win a major award of some type and am inundated with flowers from many admirers (vases not included).

My address book has telephone numbers and addresses of people I haven’t contacted in years.  Sometimes I update my listing and consider excluding information for those I know I have no interest in contacting. But I don’t… just in case.

Then there are those lotion bottles in my bathroom that I have gotten as gifts. Who knows? Maybe one day I won’t be able to buy the lotion brands I prefer, and I will be glad I kept them.

Much of my closet space is taken up by clothes that I don’t wear – the ones that don’t fit anymore, and the suits and heels I used to wear to work. I keep them for different reasons: the clothes that don’t fit just in case I get a serious disease and lose a lot of weight, and the work clothes, should I decide to come out of retirement and start a new job that requires them. These possibilities are highly unlikely, but I keep the clothes… just in case.

I have a friend who has many closets in her large pre-war apartment and, much to her children’s amusement, has saved many unusual items through the years. Early in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, she found several N95 masks, stored for many years, for her own just in case needs. Her children were grateful she had them.

I have decided, for now, that I will keep all my just in case stuff that doesn’t spoil or lose potency. When I run out of space I will toss them out.

Case closed.