A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, February 16, 2021
For some people, it’s an easy task to toss everything out without a blink. Whereas, nothing on this earth can make other people part with their goods, i.e., junk. It doesn’t matter that they would never use those items—even if they don’t work. They are not letting go. Some people kick themselves for wasting real estate storing junk—junk, also known as mistakes, products that don’t deliver as advertised but cost a pretty penny.
I fall in with the third group. I was known as a packrat, which came in handy when I lived in studio apartments. I’ve been morphing into a minimalistic lifestyle—a long way to go—but I am traveling that path. Ridding of things around the house got easier and easier, but one area was my frailty—personal care products. My stash grew with age—literally, age. As age prevailed upon my skin while the fountain of youth in my backyard rusted, I desperately sought man-made alternatives.
The question I kept asking myself, “How is it possible that I’m indoors 99% of the time now, yet I continue to reap the UV damage that ages me?” Product after product I bought. Product that reverses aging of wrinkles, sagging, dark spots, and so on. During the early months of Shelter in Place, my dark spots faded, giving me false hope. Like this pandemic, everything that has happened is new to me. The first day I went out and stood in the maze line at Costco for a couple of hours, I returned home to find those faded dark spots had darkened with a vengeance. What is going on? Lesson learned. Staying indoors made my skin more prone to the UV rays. I began using sunscreen with 110 SPF religiously, which also protects from computer screen radiation. It finally made sense why we should wear sunscreen all the time.
Alas, you have to play the numbers game before you find the product that works for you. Many reviewers raved about the products that I tried, but it did nothing for me, leading me to believe that it is subjective. I would imagine the products have to work for someone to stay in business. They didn’t work for me. Something on the market has got to work for me! I bought into a small shopping bag filled with skincare products over the last year that showed a minor improvement if any. I think what improvement I thought I saw was only wishful thinking.
Every time I looked at the accumulation of dud products, I sighed. I dreaded wasting the money on them. I kicked myself for not having returned them when I could. Now, the dilemma plagued me. I spent some money on these. I didn’t have the heart to toss them in the trash. I wanted to give them away. Who could I give them to? I finally got out of my comfort zone and did it. The only option I have is to toss them. I placed everything in a clean, clear garbage bag secured and contained in itself and threw it in today’s trash. Since I don’t know who to give them to, but in this way, hopefully, whoever finds the bag will be able to rummage through it for a product that they can use. After all, borrowing from the adage, “one gal’s trash is another gal’s treasure.”
