Stuff

I have been pondering the issue of "stuff" lately.

The fact of the matter is that "stuff", also called clutter or piles of junk, drives me nuts. I've gone through some laissez-faire periods where it didn't seem to get to me at all, but lately, the last few months, wow. It's just chewing away at my psyche. The question then became "why?".

After some work on the problem, not the actual piles themselves since most piles in this place actually belong to other family members, I concluded the following about the stuff or the everyday detritus of living:

• it is sucking the energy right out of me
  
• it looks like chaos and it feels like chaos to look at it
• it holds real negative emotions
• it can be overwhelming

The reality of stuff is that it makes the spaces of out lives messy, it does look chaotic, and get enough of it, it does overwhelm. When it is not all one's own mess, there is a loss of control. I can't simply start tossing all the non-garbage items that belong to family members. I might want to, but there simply isn't any way to successfully dump the stuff without a lot of "loss" occuring for the other persons. It is only out of sensitivity to them that I haven't and don't.

The stuff also gets to a point of representing a series of negatives in our lives. Failed efforts, or lessons learned, depending on perspective, and since we aren't likely to repeat the mistakes that lead to the lesson, why do we need the reminders piled up around us? Failed relationships, failed business, failed ideas... pick a "failure" and there is likely stuff that documents it in some way or another. Do we really need another reminder?

Stuff has come to represent distraction, lack of enthusiasm, sadness and even decay. It's time to tackle the messes.... Stuff can hold us back and down just as easily as any real physical restraints can.
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