I’ve decided I am a master with stuff. I have lots of it, so therefore I must qualify as an expert.
I’m sure that I am not alone in this occupation, there must be others out there who do the same as me or similar at least.
I have a house full of stuff. I complain regularly that there is not enough storage space in the house to fit everything in. I am a huge fan of clear plastic storage boxes – not sure exactly how many there are here full of ‘important’ stuff.
I also have several bulging bookshelves – because I love books and have great intentions of reading them all. Some I even read more than once, hence the reluctance to part with any of them in case I want to do just that.
One example is my cookbook collection, some time ago I actually culled it and reduced it to a mere sixty or so cookbooks. Some of these are there purely for sentimental reasons and I rarely – if ever use them. My school cookbook and Kelly’s which are identical but different editions. But I’ve seen the error of my ways and currently there is a pile of them waiting to be boxed and taken to the op-shop. Go me – how good am I?
But seriously, lately I’ve been thinking about what might happen to all this stuff if either Ross or I curl up our toes. It wont be fair on my children to have to sort through it all and decide what to keep – which probably wont be much. I had a conversation with my son and he said to me “No offense mum, but when you go we will probably have to just chuck all your stuff in a skip because we wont have time to sell it all off!”
Yeah, I guess I knew that deep down, but actually hearing it is very sobering.
Whilst I have been gradually getting rid of some of the stuff over the past few months – I even crowed a little about my efforts – but really I haven’t made much of a dent in it at all. Now I’m walking around the house looking at things and asking questions.
Why do I keep all this stuff? Really what is the point? Most of it means nothing to anyone but me.
The late George Carlin did a brilliant skit on stuff; he asked if we’d noticed how someone else’s stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? It’s another instance of many a true word spoken in jest.
So now I’m beginning the big cull and I expect it to take some time, but once I’m finished then perhaps I will have enough storage space after all. Then I can start on the shed !!!