In Love with France, At Home In Italy

While visiting our old friends B and L for the first time in a long while, I found myself taking a fresh look around. The sheer amount of STUFF everywhere, as beautiful and interesting as it may have been, felt oppressing. I was reminded about how frightening I find the idea of divesting myself of the stuff in my house and office, poised as I am on the cusp of some big life changes. L and I looked through thousands of her photos and she was eager for me to choose some that she would print up for me. There were many beautiful ones, but the sheer quantity of it all was overwhelming. I am trying to understand what it would feel like to produce so many pieces of art in various media without a plan for them to find a home. It's true that we rightly teach kids to value "process over product," but still... I hold back from acquiring more things because to add to my stash reminds me that I am on the wrong side of the life cycle. Unlike many people who enjoy buying new ...

In working on my "clutter" issues in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), I was shocked when my supportive therapist did not "buy" my romantic explanation for why I find it so hard to get rid of things. I described that tendency as: "I see the poetry in everything." I was shocked and dismayed to hear him say the equivalent of "Poetry Shmoetry! That's hoarding!"  Now even I knew that to be a hoarder did not sound as nice as any of the euphemisms I assigned to my clutter-producing behavior. These included: I am economical (this is the fine-motor-coordinated 3-yr.old kid who got extra points for cutting the napkins in half to save $) I come from a family that is missing the throw-away gene. I have such an empathetic relationship to history that I need to save everything in case there's another Depression or Holocaust Maybe that___(fill in blank with any useless object, here) will be valuable some day Save it for the Tag Sale (not...