Saturday, March 11, 2006

Moving Day

Why is it that people hold on to stuff that is of no use to anyone, least of all them?  I know that’s not a good way to start a writing, but I’m really confused, I guess.  Let me back up a little.
I helped a lady pack and load stuff into a U-Haul truck today.  The truck was a small one, and she had more stuff than what would fit into a large one.  She had stuff everywhere…closets, garage, utility, cabinets, on the floor…everywhere.  And most of it wasn’t boxed up or even sorted.
So we sorted/packed and carried to the truck.  John stayed in the truck and squeezed every available cubic inch out of the truck box.  We got most of the stuff loaded, but there was a lot left when I had to leave.
That is why I am asking the question.  I know I do the same thing.  We cut down on a lot of our stuff when we moved about 5 years ago, and we cut down again last year when we moved here.  We still have more stuff than I care to move the next time, so we’ll probably cut down some more.  And I have a 1951 Minneapolis Moline “U” tractor that is still at the home place.  I have no clue what I’m going to do with that.
Whatever happened to those college days when we could move with a pickup load or two?  What happens as we become adults that prompts us to hoard?  I dunno.  And if you have a clue, I’m all ears.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, this is something I think about sometimes too, because I definitely have hoarder tendencies. I think in my case, it comes from having to be frugal. I hang on to things because they still have usefullness, or because if I hang on to them, I might save myself from having to buy the identical item at a later date. Even if I'm not using it NOW, I might need it LATER. And it just happens that I do need it later often enough to reinforce this behavior. I can't think of what the specific examples were, but this happened in two different instances to me last week. And both times, I thought "Ha! I had one and didn't have to go buy it," whatever it was. But, I definitely could be better about getting rid of things I'm not using.