Sort your kit out

Too much stuff...way too much stuff

We sorted out the cricket gear, BLISS and me. It took too long. We reached some conclusions:

BLISS' conclusions:

• There's too much cricket gear.
• There's way too much cricket gear.
• There's way, way too much cricket gear.
• Did I mention the surfeit of cricket gear clogging up the garage's arteries?
• What, exactly, is all this stuff for?
• I've heard of a dog with two cocks but why have you got three boxes?
• Do you really need all this?
• Do you need even a small fraction of all this?

My conclusions:

• Oh. Look. There's the last shin pads I ever wore. It was an end of season double header, two 30 minute each-way back-to-back games. We had a full back shortage and I was well out of position against...what...eh? Oh.
• Those are not my spikes. They are MM's spikes.
• One of those boxes is MM's, too.
• That jumper's way too small. No, it wasn't always too small. It is now, though.
• That has some sentimental value. Not very much, but nevertheless.
• Just how many small, bright yellow rubber ducks have been smuggled into this kitbag over the years?
• BLISS looks very alluring in that pink “Slappers on Tour” baseball cap (the 'Talking Bollocks' tour hat, awarded in perpetuity, sort of like Brazil and the Jules Rimet trophy, just not quite as keenly contested. Frankly I'd always take the talking of bollocks over the dropping of catches and scoring of ducks (the other hats available – I think the hat avoidance hat was mythical.
• Just the one sock? No! They were my best ever pair, really comfortable and padded on the sole of the foot, loose, no tight elastic, and...yeah, right, enough about socks, already.
• Look I'm bored now. Yes I know we're less than halfway through the job but I'm starving hungry...

The actual conclusions:

There's a big cricket bag, but it's the old team bag, and it is, on reflection, too big. Unless you want to smuggle a couple of people into the changing room.

The other bags are: (1) too small; (2) too damaged, zip-wise; and (3) too small and too damaged. Bag (1) will do for the wicket-keeping gear and sundry overspill items, and bag (2) will do for the other overspill items. Bag (3) is for disposal, as is the current duffle-style kitbag (see reason (1)). An online bargain procurement initiative will be launched, kitbag-wise.

Amounts of clothes will be thrown away. Others will be rehabilitated into the drawers and wardrobe, found creased but serviceable after years at the bottom of the bag.

I will try to keep it all tidy, and keep on top of it all, from now on.

That's something destined for a failure of new year's eve resolution proportions.