"Have you noticed that their stuff is 'shit' and your shit is 'stuff'? God! And you say, 'Get that shit offa there and let me put my stuff down!'"
- George Carlin
I'd like to think that I'm not a particularly materialistic person but I suppose like everyone I seem to own my fair share of "stuff". Well, ok, a lot of it is actually "shit". I like to harangue my husband for being a pack rat but I guess I must share some of the blame for the current state of our messy nest.
Honestly, I really hate the idea of owning things. I prefer to keep my assets "liquid" (I'm a notorious tightwad!) Physically, I need free, open space. My parents often like to say that "things tie you down" and it is true in many ways. The very ownership of "stuff" requires a certain amount of responsibility (ie, paying for it, maintaining it, protecting it, etc) which can be a bit onerous (...pardon the pun!). For better or for worse, having possessions also keeps you grounded in one place (like George Carlin says, "A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.") making it much more difficult to just pick up and move freely whenever or wherever you choose. And of course, "stuff" can easily turn into clutter... and that's probably my biggest problem with it. What starts out as harmless purchases here and there can quickly turn into "Jenga"-like precariously stacked piles... the ugly mass of over consumption. Stuff can be a cancer that just spreads over your life if you let it. And inevitably the morbid side of my personality can't help but wonder what's the good of owning all these things -- in the end where will it get me and anyway who wants to sift through all this crap when I'm gone? I really feel that material possessions can be a huge burden on my life.
Every now and then I've just got to purge.
My biggest fetish seems to be paper. Books, comics, stationary, art supplies, photographs... these are probably my greatest sources of clutter. These are things I constantly buy and even by "consuming" them doesn't make them go away: sketches & writings are kept for posterity; books that I've read I'll hang onto for reference; photos have obvious sentimental and historical value. It's really hard to get rid of these things! Usually I don't have any problem divesting myself of material things. I am happy to free up the space in my life and happier still if I can give the items to charity or to someone who could use them. Still, paper seems to be my clutter drug of choice.
This week I have launched a crusade against clutter. We've tackled the bookshelves and our old trading card games, weeding out the collection of excess or unwanted items. I think we could have dug deeper and gotten rid of more than we have -- husband fought me on a few things -- but it's a start anyway.
They say you've got to choose the hill you want to die on... I just hope mine is not a pile of clutter!
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Paper is a wonderful thing that I just can't seem to get enough of, either... whether it's collecting notebooks, manga, novels, comics, textbooks, stationery (stickers!!!!)... it makes up about 65-75% of what I own!
ReplyDeleteI've found it useful to do a mini-purge every year as fall comes around. (The really ambitious may attempt to take this to the next level - semi-annually or even quarterly!) That way, you're not stuck doing a monster purge every few years (which is daunting), and you don't have to store the unwanted stuff for the fall/winter, or waste precious sun time in the spring/summer.
Stuff certainly does weigh you down... and it's incredibly hard to recoup even a fraction of what you spent on it in the first place, (the era of mass-production - nothing has value any more), which is the reason most people don't usually bother to get rid of unwanted things.
Excellent point, Kat, I think that's it exactly: when you sell for less than you paid, you realize a loss, and usually, people aren't willing to realize that loss. There's a name for it, but it partially explains why stock markets don't always work the way they should: people will hold on to crap stocks because, by not selling, they're never fully 'ripped off' or whatever.
ReplyDeleteYes, most will keep holding onto things in the hopes that their resale value will go back up (which never happens, unless you hold onto it for about 50 years :p) and they can at least get what they paid for it, or hopefully more.
ReplyDeleteHowever, once you factor in inflation and how much you have to pay to store said object properly so that it is still in good condition for resale, is it really worth it?
At least stocks usually rebound faster than the 50-year mark! ;)