Every time I anticipate any change or find any change hoisted upon me in my life I am struck by an urge to cut down on my stuff. So you can imagine this has been a fairly frequent situation for me over the last year with losing my job, having my youngest go off to college and officially be “empty nesters” and talking with my husband about how long we are going to stay in the house we have filled with stuff for 21 years. Maybe it is a sense of closure, out with the old, on with the new, or it may be part of the process for me. Maybe I am getting ready for the next phase by reflecting on the past– looking at all my stuff and trying to get rid of some of it.

The definition of stuff: according to Webster is: “materials, supplies, or equipment used in various activities: as personal property, possessions”. And I have a lot of it. I have filled a basement the size of a 2-car garage with stuff. In the actual garage we can only use one side for parking a car as the other side is filled with more stuff. My dad lives 30 minutes from me in the house I grew up in as one of 5 kids and that house is filled with stuff as well. I think the situation is getting worse; my grandparents didn’t have this much stuff.

I believe that our stuff defines us. Without our stuff it would be like living in a hotel room.  It is a way to preserve who we are and what we did, kind of a living museum. But before one becomes a hoarder something happens that makes us pause and do some purging or in my case a change occurs and I am going through boxes! Do I really need to keep every skateboard, soccer ball, ice skate that my daughters used? Can I finally get rid of the bins of Beanie Babies? I think is it official that the worth of this collection will not even cover their books let alone my original plan to pay for college tuition. At the peak of this frenzy, I actually called McDonalds in the metro area to ask what Teenie Beanie Babies they were giving away and then would drive over to buy a Happy Meals.

Tell me about your stuff and how do you prevent having it overtake you? Is it part of your change process or does something else trigger your need to get rid of stuff?