Too Much Stuff

Ever since I had the idea of going “locationless” when my current lease is up, I’ve been looking at material possessions differently. I currently live with my teenage son in a 2-bedroom apartment in a small city. We rented the apartment unfurnished and leaned heavily on IKEA to make it feel like a home. My son’s childhood bedroom is still intact at his father’s house, and I left 90% of my things behind when I moved out of the house that now belongs to my ex-husband.

When mid-July comes, I will have a small window of time to get rid of almost everything in the apartment, while still living in it. The logistics of that occurrence keep me up at night. I will extract the items I wish to keep (my older sister has graciously offered her basement for storage) and either sell, donate, or toss everything else.

Given this plan, and the fact that it is only five months away, I’ve done my best not to acquire any new things. I will admit to having a bit of an Amazon habit. I know, I know, I’m working on it.

I make an exception for items that will serve me in my new life. For example, I just purchased a 12” cast iron skillet to determine if I can do the bulk of my cooking on the stovetop. I’ve been using the skillet for cooking and reheating and a small stainless pot for heating water, and it’s going pretty well so far.

Ultimately I’d love to get rid of my appliances altogether. If you look at my kitchen counter right now you’ll see a coffee maker, an air fryer, and an ice machine. There’s an Instant Pot in the cabinet below that I think I’ve used twice in 18-months. There’s a stand mixer on top of the fridge that I’ve owned since I was in my mid-20s. How often do I use all these things? Rarely, if I’m being honest. I’m getting to the point where I can imagine life without appliances, even the microwave.

I was walking through the laundry room the other day and saw that someone had left a woven basket made of grapevines. I liked the shape, and thought it would look cute on a windowsill with some plants in it. I knew it would be gone by the next time I walked through the basement so I grabbed it. This is the second time I’ve rescued an item from that spot, the first being a lamp that Carey very happily placed in his home office. But then I realized that I’ve absentmindedly added another thing to my stash, when I’m trying to get rid of all my stuff!

We all have so much stuff. What is it about our culture that equates happiness and success with the accumulation of massive piles of stuff? Martin Luther King, Jr. once said in his Beyond Vietnam speech, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

I aspire to a simpler life. To a life where people matter more than things. Where experiences and conversations and delicious meals and gorgeous views are more memorable than a new appliance or other material possession. We can’t take any of it with us, and I want to spread all the love and joy I can in my remaining time on this earth.