Stuff

  Recently, I've started to pair down. I've thrown out or donated a huge chunk of my stuff, and I still have so much! An entire apartment full! 2 bookshelves, 1 clothing dresser, 1 linen dresser, a game cabinet, all my cooking stuff, holiday decorations, a closet full of clothes, a bed with lots of stuff underneath, extra wallets, watches, jewelry, towels...the list goes on. This is what survived my first cull; the stuff I'm not ready to donate. But why!? Anyone who's interacted with the world around them at all can see that there is lots of stuff.
   There is so much stuff! And because we have so much, we need stuff to organize our stuff, and ways to keep track of our stuff, and storage lockers to store the extra stuff until we need it, and bigger houses for more stuff.
  Don't get me wrong: I really enjoy using the stuff I have! Last year, I bought a rice cooker/crockpot/steamer, and the other day I was able to start cooking dinner while I went to grab the last few Ingredients at the store. When I got home supper was (mostly) done! All I had to do was add my ingredients, and voila!
  Things can save time and energy! They can make life easier for us, but sometimes I wonder when that line between "makes life easier" and "I have so much stuff, it's made things harder" gets crossed. When does our stuff become such a burden that it hurts to carry it?
  This doesn't even begin to address the environmental impact of our stuff, but I would need at least 5 more blog posts for that, and I'm not entirely prepared to address the huge implications my stuff has had (and continues to have) on the planet.
  For now, I'll say my stuff hurts to carry, but it hurts a little less each time I let go of something I don't need.