Have too much stuff? Me too!

“Thing-itis” leads to too much stuff

I don’t know if “thing-itis” is a word, but I am using it as one. To me, it means being unable to resist buying or acquiring stuff, maybe just one more thing, over and over again. Another version is the inability to discard whatever does not at this time serve our needs, just in case it might be useful in the future. Thing-itis can result in an environment that is harmful to our experience of clear, open and uncluttered surroundings.

I come by my “thing-itis” honestly. “Things” were in perilously short supply when I was a child. As an illustration… I kept pet mice and used to sell their offspring to other kids in the village. One day – I was about nine or ten – I asked my mother for another mouse cage. Instead of making a trip to the pet store, which I had been my plan, she presented me with some wood scraps, some small strips of leather (that I eventually used as hinges), and the tools, nails etc that we kept in the garage. Yes, I built a very serviceable mouse cage, but I also learned that even the most unlikely bits and pieces may, at some time, be useful. Hence the difficulty in discarding all manner of oddments.

Now, as I prepare to downsize to a much smaller dwelling, I realize how much stuff we can do without, even as I hesitate to discard or donate any of it. I know that I am not alone in this. Yet at the same time almost every morning television show has adopted a regular segment in which gewgaws and “must have” fashion items are offered at such huge discounts that people accustomed to buying via TV (thankfully I am not one of them) must find it hugely difficult to resist buying “just one more” thing, i.e. more stuff, particularly when it is such a bargain.

In the Western world we have become a “stuff acquiring” society, slowly becoming an overwhelmed-by-stuff society. We assuage our consciences by donating unwanted stuff to charity so that thrift stores can sell them to more people who cannot resist acquiring…. more stuff.

One wise person I know believes in almost emptying one room at a time, leaving only the most basic pieces of furniture. She then returns one most favored item at a time, pausing, or even waiting a day or – before deciding whether to add another item. When she feels that the room looks just as it should, calm, balanced, and uncluttered, she dismisses the remainder of the items in order to maintain a room in which she feels serenity.

Some say that a cluttered environment leads to a cluttered mind. I suspect there is truth in that, just as there is serenity to be found in lack of clutter. (Did you know that some have suggested that the peace we experience from clear horizontal surfaces relates to an ancient enjoyment of open spaces back in our hunting and gathering days?)

It may not be easy, but I continue on my annoyingly slow uncluttering process and look forward to eventual results. It is a journey..

So… tell me… what do you have the most difficulty discarding, even when every horizontal surface is covered?

Diana

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