Stuff Control

When we first bought our house, I wondered how we were going to find furniture and decorations enough to make it look homey and lived in.  That didn't last long.  Skip to a little over three years later when I am stretching and squeezing and sucking in and moving chairs to get from one end of the room to the next.

Don't kid yourself, that's the smile of
an element of entropy and havoc.
Photo: Katie Gandy

To be fair, I had not considered how much space a kid takes up.  There is so much that goes with having a infant, toddler, kid:  excess laundry (including the basket), play pin, extra drawer space, diaper table, toys, toy bins (this may seem redundant but if you're a parent you realize the toys are rarely ever in the toy bins), baby gates, books, diapers...I mean the list goes on and on.  And I can't even get rid of the things Toddler has already grown out of because then we'd have to buy it all new for the next kid.
Then, of course, there are adult things, and I love a good project.  That means scrapbooking, crocheting, cookbooks, journals, photos, class notes, books, and, again, on and on and on and on and on.
One day, it was like a light switch came on, and I realized, Holy Cow, I have 

Way Too Much Stuff.

Too much, too much.  Something had to be done, and it didn't seem as simple as needing a yard sale.  

I started clearing out the house piece by piece.  I actually worked off of a program, that I can't for the life of me put my hands on now, to help me get rid of everything we didn't need or cherish.  I went drawer by drawer organizing and letting go of all the duplicates in our kitchen.  I threw away stacks of paper that were years and years old.  I think I might be Goodwill donor of the year, as I have literally loaded up the van time and time again and let them unload it.  I began thinking all the stuff and how much space it took up.  Forget all the stuff I have given to Goodwill, and think about all the stuff I have thrown away.  Think about all the stuff we all throw away.  Or better yet, how much stuff we're not using that is piled high in our homes.  Meanwhile, more stuff is being created.  More and more and more stuff.  

A more organized thought process is this:

1. We have a lot of stuff.
2. A lot of the stuff we have no longer serves a purpose in our home.
3. More stuff is being created for consumers like us.  
4. We make room by throwing stuff away and buying new stuff.  

None of this makes any sense in the long term. As a planet, we're going to end up with so much stuff we don't have space for the people.  I hear all the time about population control, but my call is for stuff control.  Here is my personal recommendation to rein in the stuff on our planet.

Stock the local Goodwill

1. Donate the stuff.  Don't just throw it away. Find secondhand stores, Goodwills, or other charities like shelters.  Swap meets are also awesome.  This goes for anything you haven't used in a year and won't use for a long time.  This way, not only is it not in your home or a dump, someone else is getting excellent use out of it.  
2. Use products that are reusable.  Cloth diapers are an excellent way to reduce the 82,000 tons of plastic thrown away each year on disposable diapers alone.  
3. Buy from secondhand stores.  Think about it:  The more you buy used, eventually the less new will be produced.  Voila, less stuff taking up space on our planet.  
4. Rotate among friends and family. I have maternity clothes that bounce between my cousins and me.  It means less money spent and less storage space wasted. 

How do you control your stuff?