Accumulation
Should it stay or should it go?
In less that two months I’ll be moving to Colorado. Since it’s never too early to start purging and packing, I’ve begun that chore. Deciding what to keep and what to toss can be both fun and stressful. You find a pair of shoes that you forgot you bought 12 years ago. They’re dusty and smashed under the weight of all the other shoes you have haphazardly thrown in a big bin. You pull them out and try them on, and realize your foot has grown just a little bit over those 12 years so that the shoes are now too tight. Those shoes get tossed. Next, you come upon a bunch of protein bars you bought at Costco several years back because they were such a great deal. They were being discontinued1, and you thought you’d stock up on them because when you first tasted them you thought they were good. Years later (yes, years) you try one and realize they tasted like dry dirt, and understand why they were a discontinued item. It’s really no wonder why they taste like dirt, the expiration date on them was well over two years ago. You do the only thing you can with them … break them ups and returned them to their former life by putting them in the compost bin.
There are other things we hold dear that we could never imagine getting rid of. On my bookshelf I have a small plastic purse, something a small child would own, that has a “Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians” written on it. The purse belonged to my mother and contains some of her belongings - a bunch of quarters and a large safety pin. I remember her at Wal-Mart, pulling out this little purse and fishing out change to pay her bill. A woman in her 70’s using a child’s change purse, not caring what anyone thought about her or it. I will never get rid of this little purse. How could I? Why would I?
Clothes are another thing that’s hard to part with. The shirt still fits, the pants are still ok and in style, the jacket is from Patagonia and cost a lot and why would you get rid of it, and so on. But you also begin realize that over the years you’ve purchased new things and now you have duplicates of everything. Take for example sweatpants. My collection of sweatpants more than tripled during the COVID pandemic. Why? Because I spent every day for 8 months or so wearing them. I went from 2 pairs to my present collection. And I have different colors to suit my mood - black, grey, blue, green camouflage, and burgundy. Some have lettering in them, others a bit more “dressy” (as if sweatpants could ever be dressy). I also have the t-shirt and sweatshirt collection to go along with the sweatpants. I really should purge the collection down to a manageable number, but then I think, “Why?”. They all still fit, and none of them are ripped or stained. Getting rid of any of them would be like throwing money away. The other things that amaze me that I have multiple of are:
Snow pants - I have two pairs of these, why I am not sure. They are worn maybe 4 times a year, so one pair would likely last 50 years. As long as I don’t gain too much weight, I can wear the same pair until I am at least 105 years old. Oy vie!
Thermal underwear - I have 5 sets of these, and also a few pairs of leggings that keep me nice and toasty when I’m out snowshoeing wearing those snow pants. I still have the original silk underwear I bought at REI about 27 years ago. At that rate and based on usage, I will have long underwear until the year 2157.
Six short sleeve button down plaid shirts (different color patterns, of course) and 10 long sleeve button down shirts that are mostly blue
This is just an estimate, but I think I have at least 50 pairs of socks. Of course they are for different activities or different sizes - biking, golf, hiking, every day, calf length, ankle length, quarter length, one hand knitted pair from my friend Lisa, compression socks for when my legs hurt, thick wool winter socks, thin summer socks, a fun pair my friend Ryan gave me that say, “My dog and I talk shit about you” (these are my favorites), and more.
I have a lot of hats. Too many hats. That’s all I say about hats.
I’m not sure where I got the stovepipe hat but it’s been around for years
Between now and July 1st I’m sure I will go through all of my stuff again and make some hard decisions. Can some else possibly use two or three of my sweatshirts? Absolutely! Can I outfit a small army in sweatpants and t-shirts? Of course I can! Will I miss any of the things I actually give away? Absolutely NOT! I won’t even remember any of those items by August.
Here’s my advice for anyone with stuff… don’t wait until you’re ready to move to declutter your life. Think of everything you own as having an expiration date. Like all those bottles of spices you have, some of which expired in 2015. If you haven’t used it or seen it in more than a year2, ditch it. If it’s a serviceable item, donate it to a charity. Somebody out there can use it. Better that than it sitting in a box collecting dust.
Here’s a Costco shopping tip - items with a price that are drastically reduced AND end in 97 are being discontinued. For example, the bars I bought were $8.97 for a box of 20.
This, of course, is an arbitrary time frame. There are definitely things you only use once in a while. Like those snow pants. Or my ice cream maker (because I’d be way to heavy if I used it a lot ). Or whatever other crazy things I have that I had to have and used once or twice, and always thought, “I’ll use that again one of these days”. That day has yet to come.