Too much STUFF! (Part 1)

"By all means continue destroying my possessions," said Dumbledore serenely. "I daresay I have too many." Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling

I know how Dumbledore must have felt… well, about having too many possessions. I don’t have a fifteen year-old wizard tossing them about my study, shattering them.

It’s amazing how much stuff we collect, isn't it?

To start with, I have my own stuff… things I had acquired or was given as I set out on my own twenty years ago, and that I have acquired since. Then there’s the stuff that came with the 1000 square-foot house that I inherited when my parents passed away, just over a dozen years ago. When my grandmother passed away a year later I was able to distribute most of her possessions to other relatives, since I really didn’t need more pickle dishes, tea cups, or cookware.

I also got married a year after that, and received a number of gifts of housewares, but eventually gave most of those, and more, to my then soon-to-be ex-wife for her apartment when we separated.

One of my biggest problem is that I don’t throw stuff out. I have a drawer in the kitchen that has bits and pieces of this and that, and a whole lot of junk that I will occasionally rummage through while looking for a pen (no ink) or a battery (dead). There are keys in that drawer, and I have absolutely no idea what they might open — they don’t fit any of the locks in the house.

I don’t have a garage, but there is a shed in the back yard. Come to think of it, I helped my dad build an 8 x 8 shed shortly after we moved in here in 1978. The summer after I moved back home I replaced it with a 10 x 10 shed, and promptly filled it with stuff.

I’ve got stuff — books, mostly — in the basement that I originally packed back in 1986, when I left home. I moved those boxes halfway across the province, to five different apartments in four cities, and back to the Sault without unpacking them. Oh, I’ve extracted books from them that I wanted to read, but until I moved back here they got re-packed when I was done.

I will also admit that I love gadgets. There was a time when I would descend magpie-like upon Wal•mart or Canadian Tire and leave with all sorts of bright, shiny new goodies. Fortunately, during the past five years or so of the fiscal restraint that comes from having low-paying jobs and going back to school, I have managed to resist buying any but the most vitally necessary gadgets. (No, really!)

Next month I will get two letters, from two universities, telling me whether or not I have been accepted into Teacher’s College. (I hope to become a SCUM SUCKING PIG, Wilber.) Should I get accepted, I will face the onerous task of re-packing the contents of those boxes into newer, sturdier ones, plus sorting through the remainder of my belongings, discarding what I truly don’t need and keeping only the essentials — I hope.

It will be difficult. There are knick-knacks and what-nots that I don’t particularly like, as well as items I do like but have never used, but since they belonged to my parents I’ve been reluctant to part with them. I realize, however, that I really need to reduce the amount of stuff I have.

Hopefully, when (not if) this happens, I will not notice any real change in my lifestyle, except perhaps that I won’t have to dust around so many knick-knacks. (Dust? Who am I kidding?) After all, most of the stuff I have now rarely, if ever, gets used anyway.

I just looked over at the bookshelf. There’s a lamp that used to be in the bedroom on the dresser. It’s one of those ‘touch’ lamps. It doesn’t work. Actually, it does turn on — by itself. Usually in the middle of the night. I’ve been meaning to buy a new module to replace the defective one. Or throw it out. For the past eight years!

I have been told that I have a problem with procrastination. This is not true — I have no problem at all with procrastination. Apparently, though, others have a problem with my procrastination. I guess should do probably something about that. Someday.

So, anyway… how about you — do you have too much stuff?