Stuff

I think we all have a love/hate relationship with stuff.  Our Laissez Faire, "whoever dies with the most stuff wins", "greed is good", inner Ivan Boeski's drive us to accumulate even though our Real Simple, "you can't take it with you", "less is more", inner Amish tells us to purge.  I am famous (or maybe infamous...) for yelling at the TV while watching my favorite HGTV and Hoarding shows "you don't need more storage!  You need less CRAP!"  So when I found myself in the storage aisle in WalMart looking for additional plastic storage tubs to put stuff in our basement, I had to take a serious look in the mirror and remind myself that maybe I don't need additional places to put my stuff, I need less stuff.  Let the purging begin!

How do I find myself with 6 extra bed pillows?  And more importantly, how did I forget I had them?  I found the mysteriously multiplying pillows in the tubs in the basement when I decided to see if I could free up some space in the bins I already had rather than buying new ones.  How many extra pillows does one household need?  Apparently not 6.  And viola, an empty bin was created.  But the bed-stuff safari had begun and I couldn't stop there.  I pulled out a binkie for a twin bed.  I haven't had a twin bed since college.  Sheets for a double bed.  I haven't had a double bed since before I was married...IN 1993!  Miscellaneous pillow cases were also in there, but I'll give myself those since I had all the pillows which, of course, needed cases.  So in one afternoon I created storage, saved money, and made a huge pile to go to charity.  Well played if I do say so myself.

But this stuff obsession we all have, while lessened during the ongoing economic downturn, still drives us all to forget what's important.  Every purchase and/or acquisition is a choice.  An item or expenditure chosen to be more important than something else.  And for what?  What does all the stuff get us except more stuff and less space in our minds, closets and basements?  What does it add to our lives?  It's probably easier to ask "what does it take away from our lives?"  It takes away the need to deal with an issue that is bugging us.  It takes away the ease of a simple clutter free life.  It takes away the focus we could be making on things that matter more.  And it requires dusting.  And seriously, who wants to dust?

I guess my point here is that life isn't about stuff.  Where to put it and how to clean it.  Life is about the little things that happen around us every day.  Nothing you can accumulate takes the place of the joy in seeing a beautiful sunset.  Or cheering on the accomplishment of another.  Or smiling at a stranger and seeing them smile back.  WalMart doesn't sell that stuff.  Being a valuable and happy human being comes from within, not from the points on your credit card.  Or from the number of bed pillows you accumulate.