Loose Ends
Don't throw that away!
Susan Nienow

"I need that."

"What are you going to use it for?" my other half asked, expecting an answer that he would understand despite 30-some years of marriage experience.

"It might come in handy. I could use it for a project."

It was a bag from a shop - a pretty bag, even if it did have the name of the shop on the side. I might be able to cover that up with a design or a picture and use it for a gift bag.

My other half has serious issues with my bags. I still have one that is now 16 years old. It is green and red and from a store named Pistache that probably isn't there anymore. But I love that bag, and someday I am going to do something with it. In the meantime, it is hanging in my craft closet/laundry room with all the rest of my bags.

It's home to my bag collection. I have big shopping bags that I use until the handles come off and gift bags that I try to use again. Right now, there's only one big shopping bag but 27 gift bags of varying sizes. I went through a "gift bag" stage in my life when I bought them on sale or when they were irresistibly cute.

The trouble is that most of the "irresistibly cute" bags are never right for the gifts I give. I love the one with all of the cats but haven't ever given a cat lover a gift big enough to use that bag. And I have a tiny bag with a fairy on it. I will have to wait until my granddaughter is about 5 years old to use that seriously cute bag.

I collect dried weeds, seedpods and sticks and branches for future flower arrangements and, of course, pinecones of every size. That's what my other half has the biggest problem with. He understands that I might never find another gift bag with a big rabbit on it but pinecones and sticks are replaceable. He just doesn't want my collections taking up valuable garage space.

Speaking of using up storage space - why are we keeping the dead electric drill? And the three pieces of rope, a length of chain big enough to hoist a tractor up into a tree and a corner full of scraps of wood. Not everyone has 50 feet of used barbed wire stored in the garage either. This place used to be part of a farm 30 years ago. He doesn't even know what he would ever use it for.

It is probably the two riding lawnmowers that don't work that save me from any serious threats to clean out my stuff. They are there for parts, he says. I am saving my comments for the next discussion about my sticks.

Now I am collecting interesting bottles. I saw this picture of a piece of folk art in the garden and …