Digging through the garbage

For about a month now, I've been cleaning out my basement.

I've lived in our house for 11 years and have accumulated a lot of stuff. I've been a pack rat all my life and saved things I thought might be useful or valuable someday. Now, I've realized that most of that stuff is junk and/or worthless. If I haven't used it, I throw it away. If there's a scrap of hope that someone else would like it, I check on ebay first; then I throw it away.

What does this have to do with my oft-delayed, sparse writing career? Well, I found some scraps of paper with notes for other story ideas. I found some books buried in corners of my basement with good research information. And, I found some things I could actually sell on ebay. (I sold the first two items... wish me luck on the rest.)

And, I was able to build a new computer from scraps of dead and dying computers so I can write in my basement and not worry about speed issues.