stuff & things (not in the way you think)

 don't know what to write about today, but i feel like writing.  i feel like passing time in intelligent thought.  to prove that i still have intelligent thought.

i've been thinking about possessions today.  especially thinking about your possessions after you die.  i remember after my dad died we just threw everything out.  well almost everything.  he was a hoarder though, and things were not taken care of because there was just too much stuff to take care of everything and things deteriorated.  i remember when my grandpa died.  everything of his was just given away.  we got given things of his that we didn't even want and threw away or donated to charity shops.  i read on the internet about people getting houses ready to sell after their parents have passed away and of how they just get rid of everything.

if this is the case and the majority of our stuff becomes unwanted after we pass away, then why do we accumulate so much stuff?  why do we feel this need to accumulate so many belongings?

i've read a few blogs all about minimalism and decluttering and simplifying.  it's so interesting to see how little we really need to live and how little we really need to be happy while living.  there's one blog out there recounting how one woman is wearing only one dress this year.  i follow another blog that is all about how one family has gotten rid of over half their possessions and their car as well in an effort to become as minimal as possible.

i started out the year with some strong decluttering.  i was even keeping track.  we got up to something like 300 things flung from our house.  boxes and boxes went to the charity shop.  some went to new homes with friends.  bags after bag filled with broken and worn out and never to be needed again items that we trashed. 

we were on a roll.  & then it just stopped.  lost steam.  fell of the bandwagon.  crashed and burned.  every so often i try to give myself a pep talk about starting up again.  i had made a goal to get rid of 2011 things in 2011...but so far it's not looking good to meet that goal. 

i've been trying to figure out why i stopped decluttering, because goodness knows there's still lots to go (we have a whole basement of the stuff of my dad's that we kept) and as fast as we got rid of stuff before new stuff has already appeared in our house.

& i think i've figured it out.

i got to the hard stuff.  i got to the possessions that i actually like.  and not only me, it got to the stuff the husband and kid like.  it’s hard to get a 5 year old to part with his toys.  same with a 35 year old. 

it was easy to get rid of junk mail that was lying around and clothes with holes in them and broken toys and things family had ‘gifted’ us. however, it was hard to get rid of books and functional toys and cooking equipment and video games and other hobby stuff.  getting rid of what you like and might treasure is harder.

i continue to think about possessions and stuff as we pack for our upcoming weekend ‘yurting’ trip.  i think about possessions and stuff as we prepare to stuff everything we need for 3 days into a car.  when we go away camping we have to borrow my mother’s car because our little toyota echo just can't handle anything beyond a grocery trip.

i am amazed and astounded at how much stuff we need for 3 days, but I am also shocked to see how little it really is, y’know?  4 plates, 4 cups, 4 bowls.  a couple knives.  a frying pan.  a pot.  only the amount of food you’ll need for the next few days.  something to keep you warm at night.  pillows (yes, pillows are a priority round these parts).  some books, some toys, some games.  3 or 4 of the following:  pants, tops, underwear, sweaters…well, maybe more if you’re 5 years old and get dirty at a moments notice.  chairs to sit on.  the luxury of the whole weekend is the getting away from all the STUFF and the NOISE and the BUSINESS and the CHAOS of city-rat race living.  there is nothing like a good camping trip where your only tasks are cooking and fire making/watching and reading and playing.

this leads me to start thinking about how too much stuff = chaos and how not enough stuff = inconvenience and what is the happy medium and how do you get there?

but here's 2 different examples...

example 1:  i hate running out of food or not having something on hand.  i hate deciding to make a dish and then not being able to because we are missing ingredients.  i hate running out of conditioner or toothpaste.  i especially dislike having to purchase items at non-sale prices because we've run out.  i like to have those things on hand and i've actually started a small stockpile so i never have to buy toothpaste when it's $2 a tube again.

example 2:  i hate having too much paper. paper of any kind.  mail, envelopes, magazines, newspapers, paper for drawings, information to look at later, paperwork from meetings, receipts, newsletters.  all of it.  i hate how it clutters everything up and makes a huge mess and makes counters look messy.  i hate all the junk mail and i hate that i go to a meeting and i come home with a 1 inch thick stack of papers that i will never look at again.  i also hate how hard it is for me to part with paper.  i tend to hold on to it because i think i might need to refer to it again...but i never do.  also, my husband loves to save receipts in his pocket and then pull them out and leave them in random places in our house.  for me paper clutter = mental chaos.

so, out of those 2 examples how do you find the happy medium?  at what point is too much toothpaste too much toothpaste (this makes me think of the guy on extreme couponers who had hundreds of tubes of toothpaste)?  at what point is too much paper too much paper (this makes me think of the guy on hoarding that was saving stacks and stacks of newspaper clippings because he wanted to save the information)?

what is the happy medium?  & how does my little family get there?