Overwhelmed by STUFF!

When is the moment in time that you decide you have too much stuf? When you open up a cupboard and all the crap starts falling out the minute you inch the door open? The moment when you cannot find a certain piece of clothing and you realise that you might have too much clothes? (Guilty!!) The moment you realise you have three of everything in your kitchen and no more cupboard space to pack more stuff and no more open counters on which to work comfortably on. (Guilty!!)

We currently live in a rental and will probably still do for the next year or three or at least until the brats have finished school. It is central and not too pricey and to boot we have a super lovely landlady!! Who would want to move living in such wonderful conditions. :)

Problem is, our current place is tiny!! Well, ok, rephrase, tiny for someone used to 4 bedroom homes with more than one lounge. Put it this way and maybe you will understand and even relate....I have moved 18 times in 12 years and I am finally settled where I am. Not Moving Soon At All!! Fly in the ointment is, I have descended on a modest three bedroom with the furniture of a much bigger property so we are what my landlady often teasingly say.....a bit cluttered and cramped!!

I have read an article not so long ago that the average American family owns up to 300 000 items/things. I might be closer to 500 000 if I have toinclude all my hobby stuff like my cement mixer, scroll-saw for my woodwork, tools for whatever I am working on, paint, canvasses, molds, wood and more, boxes of stuff stored in the garage for the past 10 years or more that one keep moving with one just in case you might need it at some point, not too mention the actual everyday things in our home from kitchen appliances to my bed and pots of face-cream and makeup lining the bathroom sink.

My weak point is....I love my stuff! It is after all my stuff!! Accumulated over the last 40, or sorry 41 years (that happened so recently I am still 40 in my head!! :) )

The recent horrible tragedy of the fires in Knysna made me think. And I found that a scary thing. To imaging losing absolute EVERYTHING you own. Not through your own bad life choices or stupidity but through an absolutely random crisis. Fires razing a town at a speed unimaginable. Fleeing your home with NOTHING but the clothes on your back. Not being able to save anything, in some instances not even your pets.

I am not ashamed to say that I cried thinking about those people. And I cried some more at our vulnerability and our absolute attachment to wordly things, all our material treasures, which have meaning to us and us only, which we cannot take to the grave but cannot live life without either. I am not ashamed that I still cry with every photo or video-clip I see of this absolute devastating tragedy.

It doesn't in any way mean I am ready to just get rid of all my stuff but it did make me realise that I do have so much more than I actually need and I have decided that I will purge my house of unnecessary stuff and pass it on to someone whom might need and appreciate it more that me at this point in life. My stuff is still my stuff and I still cannot fathom living without it but I can see a slightly less cluttered future for myself and some happiness for some other family whom have to start rebuilding their lives after this horrific tragedy.

Let us all get less attached to worldly things and live life more in the moment and not in what we have or what we own. Life is not about that. It's all on loan and the moment we realise that we might experience a lightness in our souls.

(This is an earlier blog of mine from my website www.karolien-thereslifeafterkids.com)

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Photo my own*