I had a neighbor who lived next door to me for four years, and in that time, he rented three 40-yard dumpsters. Mind you, this wasn’t the Duggars; this was just a twenty-something guy, his wife, and, for the last year or two that they lived next door, a baby. How could they possibly fill 3 40-yard bins?

They were quintessential consumers. There were days when he would come home and have to clear a path to his front door because so many boxes were stacked up on his porch. Most of what filled the dumpster was cardboard. It still didn’t make sense to me that he needed three bins in four years because he also filled his trash cans every week and put stuff out at the curb.

I always marveled at the ease with which he discarded his unwanted possessions. Meanwhile, I’m on the other side of the fence agonizing about getting rid of the smallest thing. It’s not that I’m a hoarder and want to keep everything, far from it. It’s just that I don’t want to single-handedly fill the local landfill.

I feel guilty about throwing away anything that someone on planet earth might be able to use. I sell things if I can or put them out on the curb for free if I can’t. I’ll donate things as a last resort, but I would prefer people come to me to take away my stuff rather than having to schlep it myself.

And so, as a result of my neurosis, I now have the remnants of an old piano to try to get rid of. My kid bought the piano at an estate sale, and in a moment of frustration while moving the stupid thing upstairs, I said I would never move it again, and my kid took me seriously. So, when he decided he was done with it, he completely dismantled the whole damn thing, and now it’s a pile of wood, taking up space in the back of my van.

There’s no easy or cheap way to get rid of this fucking thing. I posted it for free on Craigslist and Facebook, but so far, no one is interested, which isn’t a surprise. I could cut it up and throw it in my trash can, but that will take weeks to get rid of it. Taking it to the dump isn’t free, nor is renting a dumpster, so what do I do? And who is right in this situation?

Should I be more like my self-absorbed neighbor and mindlessly consume and discard as much as I can without regard to my environment because nothing matters anyway? It seems like there is a middle ground that I just can’t see.