Saturday, July 14, 2012

Cleaning

There are any number of reflections, spiced with various levels of humor, on the amount of stuff in our lives.  (This assumes "we" are those lucky enough to afford possessions and have a dwelling in which to house them.)  Just look up a clip of George Carlin's stand-up bit about stuff for a good example.  I have no interest in covering that ground in detail yet again, but the fact is that I have been confronted by my stuff collection on a number of fronts recently, so it's on my mind.

Now, first, I'm not going to self-flaggelate much.  I don't think the amount of things I have makes me a bad person, especially since much of it was gifts or books bought for school or t-shirts that went along with activities I did.  I'm not drowning in my diamonds, in other words.  But I have become increasingly aware that I have stuff that fills a room in Cambridge, a closet and dresser at my parents' house (plus some storage rooms), and a room, kitchen, and store room at my apartment in Palo Alto.  Many of these items have made it through dozens of previous cleaning projects, but I'm pleased to report that eventually a time comes when I realize that I'm more sick of seeing a certain item than I feel sentimental about it.  When that happens, I can say, "Honestly, I'm never going to use this.  It can go away."  But there are challenges, of course.  My big stumbling blocks are:

  • Books.  Most are college books I've read and either want to display out of pride or think I might one day want to look something up in.  One shelf is yet-to-read.  One bookcase is childhood books that are sentimental and/or classics that it would be wrong to get rid of (all the Little House books, for example).
  • Magazines.  Why do I feel the need to read them cover to cover?  Because you learn unexpected and interesting things that way.  I'm just now eliminating a stack of magazines that dated as far back as 2008.  Three to go!
  • Clothes.  I'm not a stereotypical clotheshorse.  I don't yearn to go shopping, and I don't really like spending money on clothes, because it always seems like a lot for a single item.  However, I suffer from the "it's still good, it would be wasteful to throw it away" syndrome, combined with sentimentality when it comes to t-shirts.  While I think this is the ethical position to take, it also means you end up with, say, a number of oversized, faded (unflattering!) t-shirts from various Girl Scout events, or from national parks you visited with your family when you were about 12.
In short, it's always a matter of trying to assess how realistic it is that you might one day wish you still had that thing you got rid of.  I'm getting better at this, but one must persistently chip away.  With one week to go before I return to England, the pressure is on.

1 comment:

  1. I'm always a little embarrassed about how many boxes I fill up while packing my dorm room. It's crazy to think what it will be like when I actually have kitchenware or furniture!

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