We welcome Stacey back today for another fun post! Did you know Stacey is blogging now over here? Enjoy what’s sure to be an enlightening conversation by asking yourself the question Stacey poses: do you have too much stuff?

Do you have boxes in the attic or basement that you haven’t seen the inside of for months, or even years? Perhaps you packed it up with a move, and never got around to unpacking it.   Do you have a closet full of clothes because you will be that size again (one way or the other).  Do you have a cupboard full of a variety of foods, but still go to the grocery store on a weekly basis, even though the cupboards are far from bare?

I would bet cold, hard cash that you answered “yes” to at least one of those questions (and for the majority of us, we probably answered yes to all three questions).  We are all guilty of this. We like stuff. Our stuff.  We even go to garage sales and buy other people’s junk and make it our stuff.

George Carlin’s stand-up routine on this topic always makes me laugh. He is so right!  We see our own stuff as stuff and other people’s stuff as crap!  Why is that?  What is it about having our stuff with us that gives us solace and comfort?

This past year saw a lot of change for me. I took a leave of absence from my job so that my husband and I could start our own Outdoor Adventure business.  I did some preparation before I registered my leave.

I paid off debts, made sure I looked at my finances to ensure that being without a regular paycheck (and still having to pay my regular bills) would work without too much strain.  Naturally nothing is ever as we expect, and there were some major hiccups, some of which were space and financially related. I decided to sell off a lot of my stuff…helping alleviate the space issue while also helping add to the cash flow.

It was liberating!  I am going back to work at my regular full-time position in a few short months, but the lesson I learned this year will stay with me forever. I do not need mundane stuff to make me happy. I do not need to load up and keep every little knick knack I see or school paper that comes home.  We need to start looking at our purchases (of stuff) much more closely. We need to make purchases that not only make sense for us today, but also for tomorrow as well as for our environment and future.

Do you ever find you have too much stuff? What do you do about it? How do you manage your stuff?

photo credit: Ian Lamont