My Stuff

We are finally moved into our new house. I must admit that I would rather go through a root canal without pain killer than to ever move again. One friend suggested that we should have had an auction, sold everything and started over new. I am really thinking that friend was right but the biggest problem is I am not sure anyone else would want my “stuff”.

We started out with the best of intentions and really put thought into what we were moving. We started out by throwing away about as much as we moved and I must admit it was a little bit liberating. I even threatened to rent a dumpster so we could throw even more stuff away. I made this threat until I could see that Jennifer was beginning to think it was a good idea and I realized that it was my “treasurers” that would fill the dumpster. We never rented that dumpster and maybe that was our downfall.

I knew we had acquired quite a bit of “stuff” in the eighteen plus years we had lived there but I am not sure I fully understood the real level of “stuff” we had. Sadly, most of that” stuff” got moved. Sure, we started out good but it was all the corners of the barns, the attic and the closets that lead to our downfall. We would get close to a trailer load (I wonder just how the rest of the world without stock trailers move) and start filling in the cracks with “stuff”.

In other cases, we would get close to cleaning out a room, the garage or one of the barns and have a pile of” stuff” that we didn’t know what to do with. Things like scrap lumber, pipe ends, feed pans, and the hardware left over from various home improvement projects. All because someday you might need a small board or a scrap of pipe. It hadn’t happened in eighteen years but I am sure that the minute I throw something away that moment it is needed will be here.

Often these moments of indecision or rather indiscretion happened when I was packing and moving things on my own. Jennifer is much more mercenary than I am. She would throw away things without ever thinking about that moment in time, probably in 2035 when you might need that hinge or pipe fitting.

Our status now is moved but not unboxed. The shop is the central receiving center for “stuff” and boxes. In fact, there is a great pile of boxes. Yes, the boxes are labeled not because I thought of it but because Jennifer and Tatum started packing things up in an orderly manner long before I thought it was necessary and they took the time to label them. Ok, those are the organized boxes, sealed with tape. The boxes that are sprawling open stuffed to the gills with “stuff” are my doing. They do not need labeled because you can see in them and because they defy labels.

This past weekend we have started working on the mountain of boxes. Oddly the boxes neatly labeled and nicely packed seem to have a home in one of the rooms at the new house. My boxes of “stuff”, on the other hand, take a great deal of time to sort through, figure out and, ultimately, throw away. Maybe we still need that dumpster although I have learned my lesson and I will not be suggesting that.

The funny thing is that we hardly miss most of that “stuff”. The one exception so far being this morning when I went to look for my sweatshirt. I was told we had not unpacked the chore clothes and they were still in the shop. Sure, enough I went to the shop, found the box neatly marked chore clothes, cut open the tape holding the box together and there were my sweatshirts. Funny how that worked and how easy it was to find. Maybe I ought to give this organization thing a try but what kind of challenge would that be?

I have come to this realization at this time next year we should probably get rid of any box that we have not opened yet. If we have not used it in a year, we will probably never use it again and never miss it. However, the dumpster suggestion has taught me a lesson about who accumulates more “stuff” and I do not want to lose all my valuable “stuff”

There is a valuable lesson in all of this for each of us. I think it is probably an American thing and certainly a first world problem but I wonder just how much money we waste on the “stuff” that we just must have but never ever use. Maybe our lives would be just as fulfilling or maybe even happier without so many possessions. Just a thought from a guy who just moved eighteen years’ worth of living and a whole lot of “stuff”.