Bag Tie Invasion
Almost daily, I stroll around the entire property here at least once, picking up and putting away things that I should have stowed right after I was done using them. But I tend to be flighty and fickle when it comes to planning my day. That is to say, I often don’t see efforts to their absolute conclusion before moving on to others. Once a particular problem has been resolved, I’m all too eager to start fixing the next one; never mind the cleaning up after the last one. Once the problem is solved, the tidying-up afterwards takes on a very low priority, and so quite often, does not get done.
Such is the case with the little projects embodied by the Christmas Lighting, 2009 project. As I performed my cleanup watchman duties today, as has been true often in recent months, I repeatedly found these pesky little bag ties lying around. They consist of a thin and flexible metal wire, that is tyically between two and six inches long, and is encased in either plastic, rubber, or paper of every color in the rainbow. They’re used to hold closed the open ends of plastic bags of all sorts. Or, you often find the longer ones neatly and tightly securing power cords in newly purchased appliances, extension cords, and the wires in holiday light sets.
But no matter how many I retrieve on one day, I spot more the next day. Every time I think I’ve got them all gathered up, I find new ones on the floor, where they frequently clog my Kirby vacuum cleaner, which I then must partly disassemble to clear, once it begins its doleful cacophony of clicks, pops, squeals, and snaps. These twisty ties show up behind the cushions in chairs and couches; places where I must have sat while tearing into new boxes of Christmas lights, or a new crock pot, or something. I find them in the washer tub near the agitator, because at one point, I must have put some of them in my pocket, and then washed those pants without removing them first. So sometimes, I feel like I’m under siege, caught up and subdued in a bag tie invasion.
I must have around five Zip Loc bags full of the ties; one in the bedroom, two here in the office, and a few more scattered around the kitchen and cellar. But how much would you bet that when it’s time to put the Christmas lights away, and wrap up all the extension cords, that I won’t be able to find a single tie? It seems as though the troups invading my floor space scurry away when I need them for more practical purposes than clogging my Kirby. This has happened in years past, and I’m sure it will indeed happen again. But I hope such occurrences will be reduced, with all the attention I’ve been devoting lately to the Household Organization, 2009 project. We’ll see how it goes this year.
Hopefully this time, I’ll have better luck locating the real ties, because when I can’t find them, I must resort to using the following effective but kludgy improvisations:
- pieces of solder,
- copper wire,
- nylon latch bands,
- rubber bands,
- electrical tape,
- narrow cloth strips cut from old towels and clothing,
- and pieces of twine
to bundle each set of lights into its own separately-manageable, clump-like unit. We must bind them to prevent tangling with other sets nearby in the totes where they patiently await December, throughout the rest of the year. Indeed, I’m amazed every November when I get them out, at how many of these improvised tie devices (ITDs) I created the previous January, when I last stored the lights. But this year, my goal is to avoid having to cut more solder or wire, or tear up any more shirts, or waste anymore tape, just to make these ITDs. Nope, no more ITDs, which would be a nice testament to the effectiveness of the Household Organization, 2009 effort. The fewer the ITDs used, the better the organizational efforts are working.
Take care.