Hoard Is a Funny Looking Word...

[sisabet]

Apparently the concept of the Amazon Wishlist is foreign to me as I see something on someone else's list and I am all "Oh, yeah - I want that too!"

This is just like when I was a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons and yelling "I want that!" at every commercial during the break. Even if I didn't quite know what it was - I still wanted it. Not having it might mean I was missing out.

Aquisition is an instinctive response, but man, is it ever honed by the time we reach adulthood. So that is something I am working on in the New Year - or something I would work on, except financially I really can't buy a lot anyway and I've already done that "Go through your closets and donate what you don't wear" thing a few times and while I still have waaaay too many clothes that I don't wear - they actually do make me happy. I am happy that they are there.

My old navy blue (heh - not from Old Navy. Old Navy didn't exist when I bought this sweater) cotton pullover I have had since I was 15 and the sleeve has a huge safety pin in it to keep it from unraveling (it has been unraveling since before I learned to knit) brings me great joy. I haven't worn it in at least 2 years but I know that if I *need* to wear it - it is there and that is a comfort.

So I can understand this getting rid of material objects and freeing yourself from the burden of unnecessary possessions. I can. I actually think it is a wonderful thing to do. But... sometimes things are all we have left to connect us to the past. Sometimes having a bunch of stuff *will* make your life easier. Sometimes you want to wear your oldest and rattiest and most out of date sweater because you feel old and ratty and out of date.

I mean - just this week I wanted to look up some research on psychological development of juveniles in detainment facilities and also on situational sexual behavior versus preference and once upon a time I had all of that stored because the stuff I was interested in as an undergrad -- well the person doesn't really change, now do they? And it is gone. Either I tossed it or it was a casualty of the leak in my parent's basement, but at one point in my life I decided that all the papers I have written were just one more thing holding me back and *poof* they are gone. And that makes me sad now, because I *liked* writing them and I'd like to revisit some of the ideas again, now that I have more time to think about these kinds of things.

So maybe it isn't that I have a problem with these Toss-N-Burn "experts" on TV. Clutter is overwhelming and can bring on depression - this is true. Maybe it is just that I've often made the wrong choice about what to keep and what to lose and I didn't realize it until much later. So maybe another opinion would be a good thing when making these kinds of choices?

But they will pry my Angel DVDs out of my cold dead hands.

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The whole PURPOSE of wish lists, for me, is to go shopping. My friends have good taste and they remind me of things I meant to put on my list!

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

I hate clutter, but I do wish someone would sit you down when you graduate from college and tell you, "Look. Don't throw any of these papers or assignments or design projects away, because fifteen years from now? They will be the one thing you deeply regret throwing away!"

I feel your pain.

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

I'm a packrat, I've got a garage full of papers... Of course, most of these, being in boxes (and boxes and boxes and boxes) are just about as inaccessible to me as if they didn't exist. *g* But they're *out there*, by gawd.

And the advent of the home computer didn't help any. I've got disks and disks and disks (and disks and CDs!) of multiple copies of different VERSIONS of things.

I haven't even mentioned the books yet, though I *have* been carting some of these down to the bookshop. But the bookshop is MINE! so I have to watch myself that I don't "borrow" the whole damn store.

I hate clutter too, but... neatly stored stuff is my dream, not *no* stuff. I still remember a friend gushing after reading that John Lennon & Yoko Ono had a big wall of white filing cabinets. Oh, yesssss....

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

But they will pry my Angel DVDs out of my cold dead hands.

*nods* My boyfriend wants to borrow S4, and I've been telling him that he better hurry and watch S3 so we can S4 it over my winter break. Because cold dead hands.