Tyranny of Stuff*

I loved the article on the "Tyranny of the Heirloom." And I don't even really have heirlooms from family yet! My parents and Mama's parents are thankfully alive and healthy with their stuff in their own houses. And when the time comes, there actually isn't all that much "stuff" in my mom's house: a burglary and a fire cleared out both treasured heirlooms and junk, and she just isn't a keeper.

That used to drive me nuts--we had a joke in the family that if something sat still for 5 minutes, Mom would throw it away. Like the time she was cleaning her computer desktop and "recycled" all of her Microsoft programs because she didn't like the icons cluttering up the screen. So, there won't be much heirloom tyranny there (and I wouldn't call Grandma Johnson's Dresden tyranny at all!).

My in-laws are a different story; they have stuff. Lots of stuff.

But I was thinking about our own tyranny of stuff. The stuff that we have personally accumulated. Stuff that would eventually be heirlooms for the kiddos, even if it is mostly junk. We have an entire basement and closets and house filled with the accumulation of two keepers. Who rushed to prepare the house for twins, clearing two full rooms (in a 3 bedroom house) to make a nursery and playroom. Who have detritus from twins, waiting to be given away, waiting to be used by the twins, and saved to give back to the twins later.

Articles like these always inspire me to throw things out. I looked at all my magazine clippings and "keeper" magazines last night and almost sent Mama to the trash cans at 10 pm, but then changed my mind. We always talk about clearing the basement, especially because we'd love to finish it someday (to make another room . . . for stuff!), but there is rarely time.

But I do want to do it. I don't want this stuff, much of it in the basement more because of laziness and lack of time than because of any real sentimental value, to become a burden on the kiddos. The tyranny stops here.

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*With a grateful nod to the humor of George Carlin.