Stuff

Why do we (and by "we" I mean "I") collect, accumulate, acquire and store"stuff?" By way of definition, "stuff" are those items and possessions that have no immediate bearing on our health, safety, welfare, sanity or nutrition. For example, a refrigerator is not "stuff," but a never used wok is. A television is not, but a 4 year old magazine is. A hammer is not, but a container of 4 1/2 million (approx.) twisty ties is. A winter coat is not, a pair of elephant leg windowpane plaid polyester pants most definitely is. I think you get the picture.

I have kept stuff for so long I don't remember why I kept it. I have some stuff so old it could vote (if it had a picture ID.) Some of my stuff was given to me and some I actively sought. And at one time I thought it might come in handy "someday!" Well guess what, boys and girls, "someday" seldom arrives. But I still have my "stuff" just in case it does.

One of the Gas Laws (no, not the one about never eating beans and broccoli in the same meal) states that "A gas expands so as to fill the available space" - or something like that. Well, my "First Law of Stuff" states that "Stuff expands so as to overfill the available space." And lately, my stuff has gotten past that point. So I have been trying to get rid of "stuff." And it is hard, on several levels (and by levels I do NOT mean the unexcavated piles that defy carbon dating.)

First you have to identify exactly what kind of "stuff" it is. This follows a continuum from "Oh, that's where that went!" through "What was I (or whoever gave this to me) thinking" to "What the hell is this anyway?" Next comes the critical act of classification - "keep" or "toss." To those of us with packrats in our family trees (mea culpa) this decision can be agonizing. Many times a declutterization project has been derailed at this juncture. A common yardstick applied to wardrobes is "Have I worn this in the last year?" Some of us, myself included, need to ask "Have I seen this in the last year?"

Once the retention dilemma has been resolved there come more questions. "If I keep this, where do I put it?" is a common one, for, at least if you are me, if you had a place for it it would not be "stuff" but rather a "necessity of life as I know it." This begets a giant game of Tetris, where you try to fit all the pieces together as compactly as possible. Unlike the computer game, however, the "stuff" does not disappear when this is accomplished! Or if the item is classed as "toss," how to dispose of it. ("Sure I could landfill it, but is that the "green" response? Maybe someone else wants it....I'll ask all my friends / coworkers / random people in the street. Better yet, I'll E Bay / Craigslist it! Make some money off it, yeah, that's it! ") Stop yourself right there, Buster (or whatever your name is) because unlike the aphorism, one man's treasure is another's trash.

So slowly I have been identifying, classifying, moving and either keeping or tossing my "stuff."
I am nowhere near done, but I have made progress. Not just physical progress, but mental progress as well. For I have found that freeing myself from my "stuff" has been liberating. I no longer look at it and think "I should do something about this 'stuff'." I have met the enemy and it is "stuff." My two best weapons are my paper shredder and my trashbags. My greatest allies are Goodwill and Freecycle. See you at the landfill!