Too Much Stuff

In a world where so many people don’t have the basics for survival, we in this country are drowning in too much: too much information; too much food; too many things; too much waste. We can hardly keep up with the tidal wave of information we’re bombarded with on television, newspapers, the internet, email, and junk mail stuffed into our mailboxes. We go to a restaurant and are served a heaping platter of food that could feed a third world family for a week. Whole industries have been built around helping us organize and store all of the things we’re accumulating. And many of us constantly struggle with how to get rid of all the stuff we no longer need that seems to spill out of every drawer, box, and cupboard.

There are two types of people: those who love accumulating stuff and those who want to get rid of it. Being the second type, I spent several years clearing all of the junk out of my small house and garage, only to acquire a new husband of the first type. He brought with him carloads of stuff that we had to figure out what to do with. We ended up buying several new pieces of furniture to contain his clothing (over 100 logo T-shirts and Hawaiian shirts) and his collections of American Indian and farm artifacts, crystal, ceramic and resin figurines of all sorts, model cars and airplanes, souvenir magnets and drinking glasses, framed family photographs, lamps, plaques, clocks. At Christmas time, we also must make room for an extensive (and growing) display of holiday decorations stored in the garage. It has become my challenge to keep finding things to get rid of in order to make room for any new stuff he comes home with.

I suppose I could claim the higher moral ground by declaring that I place less importance on material things. But in reality, I can’t. My husband’s prized possessions are valued because they remind him of beloved people in his life, special events, places, and precious memories. I tend instead to rely on journals and photo albums to tell the story of my own life, with only a few special objects to supplement the memories. We all have our own ways of remembering our lives and telling our stories.