There are some things that come into your home and never leave!
Where did these lively little critters come from - and where will they go? They’ve been in our toy-cupboard for about 45 years. And how did these much-played-with puzzles follow us around from house to house, and stay intact with only one piece missing?
I would never describe myself as a hoarder. But I do collect and keep stuff! Sometimes because its precious or cute or someone in the family might want it one day. But actually I honestly think I really just like hanging on to stuff because I HATE throwing things away.
However, we’ve come to the stage in our lives where we need to downsize. We no longer have the time or inclination to care for our lovely property and our ageing selves have changing needs. Besides there are countless cartons and boxes in the wardrobes and the garage that really do need to be sorted and if we don’t do them now, later someone else will have to do it. But I really don’t want anything thrown away!
So over the past few months I’ve been de-cluttering, clearing out and passing things on. Smurfs, jigsaw puzzles, books, clothes, shoes, lego, china, linen, tramping sticks, a sofa, paints and inks, picture frames, outdoor furniture, a large storage unit, a chair, a cupboard, and excess gardening equipment - and that’s just for starters! Its all gone to The Sallies Store, The Red Cross Book Shop, onto ‘Marketplace’ or left on the berm in front of our house (from where its usually picked up within a few hours.)
And a tiny little bit of scrappy stuff that no one would want has been thrown away.
This all takes me to consider the way we accumulate stuff and what we do when we’ve finished with it. There’s the necessary and important stuff that is essential for a good life. But there’s also unnecessary and unimportant stuff that just we use (or play with) for a while and then it gets lost in a bottom-less space in the garage or toy cupboard or the cupboard above the wardrobe. I have kept stuff that is no longer needed or useful, just because I don’t want to throw it away.
So one result of de-cluttering, clearing out and passing on is my thought that from now on (and I hope its for a good few years yet!) I will buy mostly what’s essential - and some things that are just ‘good to have’ - but, when I’m buying it I’ll think about where it might end up when we’ve finished with it. Is it of sufficient durability that it can be handed on so someone else to use, or might it only last a season with us, and then end up - horrors of horrors - being thrown away. Which takes me to the approach of Marie Kondo when it comes to getting rid of stuff. She wrote in her book, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up …“keep only those things that speak to the heart, and discard items that no longer spark joy”. The word “discard'“ brings me to Julia Butterfly Hill - the American environmental activist, best know for living on a platform in a 200 foot-tall, approximately 1000 year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days (Dec 1997 - Dec 1999). Julia said, “ when we say we will throw something away, where is ‘away’?” *
So where will the Smurfs and the much-loved jigsaw puzzles go? They will both continue their journeys in other children’s toy-boxes………. maybe they’ll just eventually disintegrate into tiny pieces from being played with over and over and over and over again. What a nice way to go.
*Julia Butterfly Hill decided to do the “tree sit” when the Pacific Lumber Company announced a new ‘clear-cutting’ initiative. “‘Clear-cutting’ is an extreme logging method in which resilient natural forests are harvested and replaced with man-made tree plantations that do not replicate the ecosystem services of a healthy forest,” according to the environmental non-profit organisation Sierra Club. Julia and her supporters ultimately reached an agreement with the Company to preserve the California Redwood and other similar ones.