American culture holds many interesting phenomena.
One is the way we spend our life accumulating junk.
We work to obtain junk, we obtain junk, we fill the space we live with junk, which we keep whether we need it or not. We obtain more and more junk. We spend huge portions of time cleaning up our junk. We rationalize keeping our junk. We purchase little clear containers to make us feel better about storing our junk. We buy bigger spaces to hold all of the junk we have obtained.
When we die (or downsize), we toss nearly all of it, except of course the things which our children choose to buy a bigger space to keep until they die. Then their kids toss it.
I intend to break this mold. I hope one day Logan can report positively to you.
8 comments:
I just went and bought 2 new clear containers to organize the junk in our garage! My Mom was always big on "de-junking" every Spring and Fall so when I start feeling overwhelmed with STUFF I get the itch to de-junk. It does seem odd that we work so hard to buy this stuff which all of a sudden becomes junk.
Tell me your secret! We are in the process of packing boxes and getting ready to move, and I'm not getting rid of as much junk as I'd like to be! And I thought I was pretty good about throwing stuff away.
I am HORRIBLE at de-junking. I grew up to darn frugal and have the "what if's" and the "maybe one day's" and "they might want it when they have kids," yada yada yada all through my bones and I hate it. And yes, I actually do make miracles happen with it occasionally but is it worth it. I get the itch to get rid of stuff all the time and am sorely disappointed with what I actually find a way to part with. Someone please help! We have a neighborhood garage sale this weekend and I'm determined to participate and actually have plenty to contribute. Wish me luck! And good luck with your endeavors to simplify! Awesome!
Garage Sale this Saaturrrday!
What a timely post. I just spent literally all day yesterday organizing my junk, and I'm not even much of a junk keeper.
You are pretty amazing, still hooked on the endorphin rush that comes from throwing things away.
Just think of the people around the world benefiting from your discarded stuff through DI. So much better than filling up the land fill. (Even though it does annoy me that some people are too lazy to take junk to the dump so they take it to DI and pretend it's something someone would want. Then DI has to haul it away.)
I too was raised a little too frugal and so I think, I'll use this "someday", then I won't have to buy it. Although, with our move coming up I'm getting better. Thanks for the motivation!
I love reading your posts. Its like a moment of epiphany each time. I love you for being my brain.
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