The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of?

Table full of glassware and other china collectibles

We save it. We move it. We try to get rid of it. Then we buy more of it.

I can’t complain. If it wasn’t for all your stuff, A Simpler Life Now might not be in business. But try as I will to share with you many of the objects that you might consider eliminating before your move, your stuff stays put. 

What can we do to tame our stuff?

A classic George Carlin monologue from his stand up show delivers a great take on our relationship with our stuff.

“That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff,” he says. ”If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”

My favorite part of this sketch is when he talks about packing your stuff for vacation. Sometimes, he says, you do a mini-excursion during your vacations and you have to edit your stuff down even further. 

“Oh, no! Now what do I pack? Right, you’ve gotta pack an even smaller version of your stuff,” Carlin says.

Figuring out what to do with stuff is the most challenging part of my job. All my clients have too much stuff. Lladros, Hummels, china, Waterford, Lenox, Corningware, bags, suitcases, and so much more stuff.

They hire me to help them pare down that stuff, and it isn’t easy often because of the sentimental attachment to it.

  • “Oh, my long-deceased mother collected those Hummels.”

  • “I got that Lenox vase for my wedding.”

  • “Yes, I know, it’s been sitting in the china closet unused for 40 years, but still. My daughter made me that handprint when she was in preschool, and I keep it next to the one my granddaughter just made me.”  

My job, if I do it right, is to convince my clients that it is not the stuff itself that is important, but the memories that the stuff brings up. 

So think about some of the stuff you can part with so that you can live a more streamlined life. You will still have the memories. You can:

  • snap photos of the stuff. 

  • write about the stuff in a journal. 

  • take a video of yourself describing the stuff, using it, and telling about its origin.

But you don’t need to keep (and go to the expense of packing and moving) the actual stuff. I hope this doesn’t sound harsh, but it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to actually want most of it anyway. 

That’s option A. If you can’t do it, then call the realtor so you can move to a bigger house. Tell them you ran out of room for all your stuff.

Cecilia BeislerA Simpler Life Now