Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Moving reveals the need to get rid of stuff

The only time you touch everything you own is when you move.
The less frequently you move, the more things you accumulate.
The late George Carlin had a comedy routine based on this idea. He noted that a house was really just a place to store “your stuff.” Here's an excerpt. See a video of his act below.
"A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get ... more stuff!
Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore."
Having just moved over the weekend from Chicago, Ill., to New Canaan, Conn., I can accurately say we have too much stuff.
When I was a bachelor, I moved frequently and traveled light. I didn’t have many decorative household items and what furniture I had was cheap and expendable. I wasn’t tied down with pets or even houseplants. I wasn’t a fugitive from justice with the Feds on my tail, I was just a typical single American man.
Nothing against the fairer sex, but women tend to be nesters. They like nice furniture, wall hangings, decorative items like vases and figurines. Men will have the bare necessities in the kitchen but women often want the full Rachael Ray treatment. Same goes for bathrooms and bedrooms, where men like myself prefer dorm-room simplicity and women want the Martha Stewart look.
Add kids to the mix and your quantity of stuff really explodes.
Add a pet and you get even more stuff.
Such is life.

No comments: