On the Accumulation of Shit

Wednesday, September 22, 2010
The Smart Man and I aren't really hoarders. Years of military life (and its requisite moves) have made us a bit ruthless when it comes to deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. We make it a practice to clean out our storage areas about once every 18-24 months, reexamining boxes and making fresh "keep or ditch" decisions each time. We don't have goat paths in our house, and we both prefer an uncluttered living space.

This weekend we'll be in the middle of one of our periodic storage clean-ups, and I have to ask - where the hell did all this shit come from? Some of it I get - when I cleaned out my work cube before moving to my home office full time, I had to bring all my cubical detritus with me. My expense reports had to be retained for seven years, and I still had files of them from when we faxed receipts instead of doing everything on-line.* Christmas decorations and such have to be stored somewhere during the off season.

But the rest? I have no frickin' idea how all this crap ended up in the basement storage area. When you have to move every few years, it forces you to go through everything on a regular basis and weight restrictions on what you're allowed to move tends to keep the junk down to a dull roar. But I've lived here in the Big Yellow House longer than I've anywhere except the house where I grew up, and I've found that junk tends to spread, like mold.

Sometimes I feel like living in the same house for many years means a constant state of vigilance against the accumulation of shit. Get thee behind me, junk!

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*With the exception of the few arts & crafts projects my kids made ("gummy lumps" in family parlance) I threw all that shit AWAY. Including the crystal statuettes given to me by my company as various awards. I suspect some of those would make good home defense weapons in the bludgeoning department, but at this point they don't mean much to me for any other reason.

17 comments:

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

There was a reason the pioneers would burn the place and go on and start over westward.

Dr. Phil

Phiala said...

I kind of like Dr. Phil's suggestion.

Running away from home also sounds appealing.

But in both cases, the books.

Janiece said...

Phiala, eBooks are my new best friends, and space considerations were one of the primary drivers for my decision to get my Kindle. Disk space is cheap, and I very, very rarely buy a paper book these days. And as I replace my favorites with eBook editions, my bookshelves are slowly emptying. Which will make our next move a bit easier, I think...

Tom said...

George Carlin said, "Do you notice how other people's stuff is shit, and your shit is stuff?" I think you got it right. "This stuff is all shit! Toss it!"

Random Michelle K said...

Oh it's insidious, the shit is.

We did a thorough purge when Grandmom moved in, and I ended up doing twice yearly purges after, because our house was just too damned small for all this shit.

Now, as we're reclaiming her bedroom for our own, I'm hoping that in rearranging and purging I won't start keeping more shit, just because I have more space for it.

It's also why I like to try and give gifts that are useful rather than decorative.

vince said...

Itty bitty apartment, so weeding has to be done, but then there's books, music and DVDs, and I'm basically down to those that will never leave, just be replaced if/when necessary.

Paper books to ebooks will happen when and only when they're not device dependent. If Amazon decided to quite selling Kindles, I'd loose all books in Kindle format. Yes, paper books can be damaged and destroyed, but so can electronic books, so that's a wash. Even then it will be a slow process, because I won't spend money to replace what I already own just to save room - just get new ones and replacements for paper ones that need replacing due to condition.

DVDs have DRM and it's illegal to crack it (although I could anyway and place them on hard drives) but that means backup copies which means DVSs, so no point.

CDs I could rip and store, then burn the individual files on DVDs to save space as backup, but I just don't have the time to do this. Besides, I like all the info on the CD covers and inserts.

I have gotten rid of a lot of furniture to make room. I don't own a bed, dressers, dining room table/chairs, etc. - I own book shelves, a futon, shelves for CDs and DVDs, a desk and office chair, and storage containers. But I admit I'm a bit different. :-)

Janiece said...

Vince, my next eBook reader won't be a Kindle, because they're not compatible with eBooks from my local library (nor are they likely to be).

Random Michelle K said...

Vince,

I put all our CDs into one of these: (and something similar for the DVDs.

It holds fewer than advertised if you put in the inserts (which I did) but clears up SO MUCH SPACE!

Random Michelle K said...

Umm.... Link?

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Logic-KSW320-Koskin-Wallet/dp/B00025HIO4

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Threadjack Alert:
Dammit Janiece. I was PERFECTLY FINE when I thought it was NORMAL to wake up in the middle of the night, and I could function JUST FINE.
Now that I know there is help out there, I am cranky as hell.
Thanks. Humpf.
Oh! And your boxes (2) are on their way! Enjoy!

Janiece said...

Don't blame me. Neurondoc started it.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Dang conscientious Doctors! I only hope I see one at the VA.....

Anne C. said...

As I have a Little Yellow House, I do the same as Michelle and purge regularly. I also am switching to the CD "wallet" for my backup CDs and burning them to a hard drive. Of course, this all takes time. :P

Janiece said...

Anne, I heard THAT. This particular purge includes me scanning all those photos from 100 years ago and then burning them to CD so I can get rid of the old photo albums and such.

Yuck.

Fathergoose said...

We went paperless a few months ago. 6 feet of paper down to a 6 inch file folder. Sold the filing cabinet so we would not be temped to go back to our evil ways. Now its just a few minutes of scanning each week. Next up all the pictures we took before we had digital cameras!

The Mechanicky Gal said...

I scanned slides for my Mom and Dad (they turned out excellently, considering that most were at least 40 years old, some about 60 years old) and look forward to scanning my photo albums. Get rid of those huge-ass albums! YAY!

WendyB_09 said...

Hey, we'll trade ya...next major family project is decluttering my parent's house they've been in for 37 years. And the shop, and the other out building that is completely covered in ivy vines...

Note - brother & I come by the packrat gene honestly.