The purge of belongings

As soon as we started talking about going on this adventure I became hyperaware of the sheer volume of stuff we owned. For the last 15+ years we’ve lived in the type of small-to-tiny places where Costco runs are not in play but something about getting older means the inevitable accumulation of stuff.

When it comes to belongings these are my two wolves:

1. I hate clutter. I hate piles. I hate disorganization. I hate stuff that does nothing but accumulate dust.
2. I want to have what I need in the moment that I decide I need it. Baking bread? Got it. HDMI cord? Pick your length. Hanging curtains? Hand me my tool box. Full snow outfit? I live in San Diego and hate the cold but you never know.

I was emotionally preparing to go full minimalist wolf and stare dead into the eyes of the wolf that whispers, “what if you want to make a cheesecake,” while putting an unwrapped game of monopoly into the donation pile. It would be hard to deny future me the chance to save the day with my three-hole punch but we were bound to the interior volume of our Honda Odyssey and whatever didn’t fit wasn’t coming with us.

Getting rid of things is harder than it should be. Some of my things were crappy and could be thrown away but most had value. I wasn’t as concerned about recouping costs as finding someone who can use the things I no longer need. I tried platforms like Offer Up to list things for free but it was time consuming to wade through bot responses and annoying to go back and forth with people who ultimately ghosted me. Even Good Will donations had an underpinning of wastefulness as the very kind workers added our boxes to a freightcar brimming with similar items.

What is responsible stuff ownership? I’ve long given up the notion that one can truly be a responsible consumer in America. We’ve built our society and economy around the perpetual flow of cash into stuff that is used to define who you are as a person. All that stuff eventually ends up shoved in closets and storage bins until one day it becomes someone else’s problem.

And yes, I hear skinny jeans are coming back and I’ll probably buy another sewing machine someday but in the meantime the freedom of being able to fit all our belongings into a minivan feels really good. But if the internet ever goes to hell, I’m going to be so mad that I got rid of my dictionary.