Back to basics

Last year, I worked with more organizing clients than I have ever worked with before. While cleaning out my files, to start this new year, I thought about each of those jobs and the people who were brave enough to take on the task of organizing. Yes, you have to have the courage to make the call for help, trust someone you don't know to come to your home, and be led through the process. You also have to be determined to see the job through...some jobs don't finish, and some jobs morph into something else. But one way or another, each client comes face to face with themselves, often in ways they had not anticipated. And that's why I say "it's not about the stuff..."

Stuff...somewhere, somehow we got it that life was about stuff. The more successful we are, the more money we have, the more stuff we get and the bigger the space to keep our stuff is. Now that I've watched Mad Men, I understand it better, those guys really changed our world, along with the TV. We got the message that life isn't worth living without all the stuff.

While we have each formed our own personal attachment to stuff, the fact is that stuff is stuff, in whatever form it takes:

Stuff for convenience - most of us have collected things to make our lives more convenient - why use a knife and cutting board when you can buy a metal or plastic thing that cores an apple or takes the avocado out of its skin. Convenience and time saving devices take up a lot space in our homes and garages...

Stuff for specific uses - this thingy goes with that thing and it has to be over there so that I remember that I have it...

Stuff for hobbies, crafts and sports - there is an endless parade of stuff devoted to each of these areas. And the really tough thing about this kind of stuff is that you need other stuff to keep or use the stuff for the hobby or sport!

Stuff for kids - oh my gosh, I don't know how I ever survived my childhood with a couple of dolls and a few books. I never cease to be amazed at the unbelievable amount of stuff for kids and how much of it we fill their lives with and we are training them to be great stuff collectors...

Stuff with emotional attachments - stuffed animals, cute coffee mugs, anything with Santa, itsey bitsey things, stuff that we've decided means as much to us as life itself...

Stuff just to have stuff - rich or poor, can't live without being surrounded by stuff...

Stuff in the form of paper and books - many of us feel the more paper we have the smarter we are, the more important we are...can't possibly live without the latest book or let go of papers and reports...

Stuff in the form of entertainment - books, cd's, albums, video this and that...electronic games and all of the stuff that comes with it...

Stuff in the form of electronics - gadgets and gizmos of every shape and size, computers and monitors and floppy disks that still might contain something that will be needed...

Stuff that came from someone else - family heirlooms, most of which you don't really like, but you just can't let go of...

Stuff you're saving for your children - whether they want it or not!

What stuff do you have? Why do you have it? What are you going to do with it? What are WE going to do with all this STUFF?