Stuff

I've been thinking a lot lately about stuff. Physical stuff, emotional stuff, relationship stuff and stuff stuff. I realize I'm a Johnny-come-lately to this whole blog thing, but there is some great stuff in the-land-of-blog about stuff.

Time Magazine just did an article about a guy who is embarking on a "100 thing challenge." This guy is cutting his personal possessions down to just 100 things. Here is a link to his blog if you are interested. The idea of getting down to the basics is very appealing to me right now. I don't want to waste any more of my time moving, dusting, rearranging, cleaning, fixing, monkeying with or taking care of stuff than I have to. At some point the stuff just seems to own you instead of you owning the stuff.

For a while now I have been going at this de-cluttering in a half-hearted way saying I only want stuff that I either use all the time or love. All the other just-in-case stuff has to go. But it's a lot harder than it seems. Getting rid of stuff responsibly take a fair amount of effort and planning. There is the sorting and the cleaning and the donating and the tossing and the selling and the trading and the giving away. But the emotional clearing and energy charge I get from getting rid of things is pretty addictive. It's a short-cut to an emotional freedom that's generally hard to come by--opening the door to fresh new stuff coming in. But hopefully less of the stuff stuff and more of the good stuff--the people stuff.