Stuff

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly going though cupboard and baskets to give away stuff that we don't use, have out grown or no longer make use of.  I have not been particularly methodical at doing this but I know where I have and haven't been through.  When we have, in my opinion, too much stuff it feels overwhelming like it is threatening to take over, it becomes difficult to manage and keep on top of.  Don't you hate it when you go to a cupboard and can't get to what you want without unpacking most of the contents?

I grew up in a house that was full of stuff.  My parents seemed not to notice the volume of it, how it covered the surfaces and filled the cupboards and, after my siblings and I left home, the rooms.  My bedroom was an oasis from this, a room with relatively few things.  I carried this on when I left home, I moved around a lot and everything I owned had to fit into my car to move from a to b if it didn't, it was passed on to someone else.  But since buying a house, and settling, my possessions have grown in number especially since having children.  Our house is not particularly big and there is little opportunity to expand.  I love my house and am not keen to move so we have to fit into the space we have.

Whilst I have been going through this decluttering process I have mulling over the whole idea of what I actually need, to live as I want to.  I don't think I could ever live as minimally as the people depicted in these pictures but I am not sure that I would want to.  We have a small garden at the back of our house which we garden, to achieve this we have a small collection of tools, we enjoy camping, canoeing and walking, all activities which require particular equipment to take part in them.  To cease to continue these activities because the equipment they require needs to be stored seems to me to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

This week I came across this interesting post on this insightful blog.  It celebrates moderation, a state of enoughness about not having too little or too much but somewhere in between.  That is what I am striving to achieve,  I've not reached it yet but I am on the right road and now I know where I am trying to get to rather than floundering along the path.