Surrounded by Stuff

It all started when we asked a friend to come pick up his things from our garage. We had no idea that this would remove our convenient excuse for why the garage was a mess…that had someone spilled into every corner of the house. But there it was…this newly clean corner in the garage, that put the rest of the room to shame. I couldn’t help it. I started organizing the rest and realized that we are surrounded…by…stuff. We have stuff of all categories and sizes. Christmas stuff. Our children’s elementary school stuff. Eric’s military stuff. My work stuff. His work stuff. His tool stuff. My “random purchases at 2am” stuff like my Travelocity Gnome. SO MUCH STUFF!

I ventured into the house after putting the garage in some semblance of order. Yep…there it was…more…stuff. Cooking stuff (I found close to 40 bottles of spices). Exercise stuff (in amazingly great condition…read into that what you will…) Dog stuff. Cleaning stuff. Books, books and more books (although I can’t bear to call my books “stuff.” They are “investments into the creativity of others.”) Every corner of every room was packed with stuff. Eric and I looked at each other at decided to de-stuff ourselves. We took two bags of clothes to the Goodwill and are now re-stuffing the garage with miscellaneous items that will go to various other people that are looking for more stuff.

I started with trying the KonMari method but decided that asking myself if it sparked joy was just too complicated. I asked myself instead, “Does it serve a purpose? Do you remember buying it? and Are you willing to dust it?” to which the answer has typically been “No, No” and “Absolutely not!” We decided to clean a different shelf each day with the understanding that just moving everything to another shelf doesn’t count. This was after I ran out of room on the bottom shelf.

So let me know if you are in the market for more stuff. There is no sifting for particular items, however. You may get a grab bag of thyme, children’s artwork and a chewed dog toy, or end up with a treadmill. Back your van up and I’ll just shovel random stuff in. You can do your part in preventing us from showing up on “Hoarding: Buried Alive“.

I tried to part with the Gnome but he keeps finding his way back into the house. He serves a purpose…

…mainly to remind me that shopping at 2am is never a good idea.