Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "collecting"
Shedding Stuff
It's hard to do, harder for some than others. We see shows on TV like "Hoarders" and think, "Glad I'm not like them." But maybe we are.
I spoke with a woman yesterday who has two storage facilities full of stuff, a room in her son's house is stacked to the ceiling, and her own house consists of pathways banked by stuff. She and her husband are building a pole barn to hold more stuff.
Another friend complains that her husband can't stop buying stuff. His passion is old machinery, so they have a dozen ancient tractors, a few bulldozers, an array of farm equipment, and a host of smaller pieces. None of them work, which doesn't matter, because the husband is not a farmer anyway. He just likes owning stuff.
My mother was a great one for stuff. An elementary teacher, she saved things for arts and crafts: empty plastic bowls, used compacts, egg crates, et cetera. When she retired and no longer needed the items, they remained in her basement, gathering dust, getting damp, and taking up space. After her death, it all went into the trash.
So why do people keep stuff they don't need? Theories abound. The fear that we might need it at some point in the future. The fact that many of us have extra space, so there isn't a great need to downsize possessions. The belief that someone, hopefully our children, will be thrilled to inherit our junk when we're gone.
People hire people to come in and help them get rid of junk. TV shows are formed around clutter and getting rid of it. Magazines suggest weird stunts like swap meets where people get together and trade junk. And garage sales, where we actaully pay money for other people's junk. How about simply garnering the self-discipline to look at what you own and sort it into three categories: essentials that you keep, decent stuff that you give to charity, and junk that you jettison, hopefully in an environmentally responsible way. Is that so hard?
I spoke with a woman yesterday who has two storage facilities full of stuff, a room in her son's house is stacked to the ceiling, and her own house consists of pathways banked by stuff. She and her husband are building a pole barn to hold more stuff.
Another friend complains that her husband can't stop buying stuff. His passion is old machinery, so they have a dozen ancient tractors, a few bulldozers, an array of farm equipment, and a host of smaller pieces. None of them work, which doesn't matter, because the husband is not a farmer anyway. He just likes owning stuff.
My mother was a great one for stuff. An elementary teacher, she saved things for arts and crafts: empty plastic bowls, used compacts, egg crates, et cetera. When she retired and no longer needed the items, they remained in her basement, gathering dust, getting damp, and taking up space. After her death, it all went into the trash.
So why do people keep stuff they don't need? Theories abound. The fear that we might need it at some point in the future. The fact that many of us have extra space, so there isn't a great need to downsize possessions. The belief that someone, hopefully our children, will be thrilled to inherit our junk when we're gone.
People hire people to come in and help them get rid of junk. TV shows are formed around clutter and getting rid of it. Magazines suggest weird stunts like swap meets where people get together and trade junk. And garage sales, where we actaully pay money for other people's junk. How about simply garnering the self-discipline to look at what you own and sort it into three categories: essentials that you keep, decent stuff that you give to charity, and junk that you jettison, hopefully in an environmentally responsible way. Is that so hard?
The Noah Syndrome
Why, when we buy something new, do we always keep the old one for a backup? Is having two of everything somehow a hedge against being left with nothing?
I threw away an old dustpan this morning. Now I have only one. What if it breaks? (For those of you who don't even one ONE dustpan: I like to sweep. I like to see the dirt, cat hair, and apple stems pile up in the middle of the floor and then I like to whisk them away.)
My husband is worse than I am, going beyond Noah's two and tending toward the Coneheads' mass quantities. Our optometrist asked if he had a spare pair of glasses for his upcoming trip to Canada. He replied that not only does he have his previous pair, he's held onto the pair before that. Probably can't see out of them, but they're there if he needs them.
And if he can find them. That's the crazy part of keeping spares of everything. Are you really going to hunt through the basement, the garage, or the cupboards to find the older version of the thing you just broke or lost, or (admit it!) are you going to get in the car and go buy a new one that's unscratched, up-to-date, and in style?
Noah had a reason for collecting two of everything. I'm not sure why the rest of us do it.
I threw away an old dustpan this morning. Now I have only one. What if it breaks? (For those of you who don't even one ONE dustpan: I like to sweep. I like to see the dirt, cat hair, and apple stems pile up in the middle of the floor and then I like to whisk them away.)
My husband is worse than I am, going beyond Noah's two and tending toward the Coneheads' mass quantities. Our optometrist asked if he had a spare pair of glasses for his upcoming trip to Canada. He replied that not only does he have his previous pair, he's held onto the pair before that. Probably can't see out of them, but they're there if he needs them.
And if he can find them. That's the crazy part of keeping spares of everything. Are you really going to hunt through the basement, the garage, or the cupboards to find the older version of the thing you just broke or lost, or (admit it!) are you going to get in the car and go buy a new one that's unscratched, up-to-date, and in style?
Noah had a reason for collecting two of everything. I'm not sure why the rest of us do it.
