Now, somewhere in one of my more recent Five Frugal Things posts, I made mention of Rotation. I promised to address it in greater depth later, and friends, later is now! (Wow – that’s meta!)
Rotation is a time-honored tradition within my family, stretching back generations. I was first introduced to it with my mother and my Aunt Lynn, my wonderful godmother, back when I was a child. From well before my time stretching on into the present day, Mama and Aunt Lynn were forever putting things into Rotation, shuttling items back and forth from house to house, even including others into the act where appropriate.
The rules to Rotation are simple: If you have something – a home furnishing, clothing, artwork, etc. – that somebody else needs, and you can spare to part with it (on a temporary or permanent basis, though Rotation is usually semi-permanent at best), put it into Rotation! Does one of your lamps actually work better in your friend’s house? Could your friend use it? Put it into Rotation!
One of my favorite Rotation stories is the tale of the bookcases. My father built several sturdy, solid wood bookcases eons ago, in probably the late 1970s, and they lived at our house, in his office, for years. In the mid-1980s, Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jim needed some bookcases, my dad was redoing his home office space anyway, and voila! Into Rotation they went, down the street to Lynn and Jim’s house. And there they lived happily for about 15 years, residing in various spaces throughout the home, until I needed some bookcases for my first apartment, and – voila! – into Rotation they went again, over to me. Those bookcases now live upstairs in LeeLee’s office, but I’m certain their Rotation travels haven’t ended just yet!
And Rotation has certainly carried on into this generation as well. My friend Denise and I are constantly placing items into Rotation – in fact, I’ve got a bag for her now, filled with a 1,000-piece puzzle, a book, and a brand-new bottle of dish soap with a fragrance that was too strong for me. We’re constantly shuttling items back and forth, for a moment or for keeps, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Do you have a version of Rotation? Sound off in the comments!
:)