Stuff

While waiting at the luggage carousel at Vancouver recently, I overheard two young Australians talking about their plans. When asked how long they were staying, they said they did not know, their only plan was to spend a couple of years in Canada and the States, working their way around the countries. They both had the ubiquitous packsacks but I wondered how much luggage they would have if they planned to stay for two years. All they had was a backpack each.

As I retrieved my golf clubs and suitcase, I thought how neat it was that you could pack everything you needed into one pack. Then I realized that what they were carrying was actually everything they owned. I thought of how many suitcases I would need for my stuff – most of which would not fit into a suitcase in any event, and I wondered if I had too much stuff.

Many of our immigrating fore-parents in the late 1800’s arrived in this country with nothing more than a couple of steamer trunks and a few dollars to get them started in a new life in a new country. When I left home for my first job I packed everything I owned into a couple of Gladstone bags. Three years later I had accumulated enough stuff to have added a small metal steamer trunk to the Gladstone bags. I wonder if the young Australians would return home with more stuff than they brought.

It is amazing how much stuff we accumulate over the years. Those who have moved between houses or apartments will know whereof I speak. It is one thing to move up into larger digs as you raise a family because you make allowances for the room needed to hold all your stuff. But when the kids have finally flown the nest for the last time and you start thinking about downsizing, you realize that you will not have enough room for all your stuff.

You can shed a lot of your stuff by giving it to the Sally Ann or other organizations that help the needy, but some of the things you have accumulated over the years are just too personal or unique to give up. You can have a few garage sales just to maintain a level of walking room inside your house, but I find that we need a sale almost every year as we keep buying stuff and getting stuff from Santa that we really don’t need.

Whatever will happen when we have to leave our homes and spend the last years of our lives in a retirement home? What will we do with all the stuff we have? How can we possibly downsize to two suitcases and a steamer trunk of clothing and things we really need? And will the cat want to travel inside the trunk with all the old photographs and a few treasured books?

Comedian George Carlin has a routine where he talks about all the stuff we have and how much of it we really need. As he divests himself of things he doesn’t really need he comes to the conclusion that the only stuff he needed for a weekend trip was a toothbrush and a condom in his wallet. Life in the north isn’t that simple. I figure we would need to add at least a sweater and a toque.

How much stuff do we need? I’m not advocating that we all become monks and own only a saffron robe because our economy depends on us buying lots of stuff, whether we need it or not. Yet maybe as we get on in years we should be diverting some of our money from buying stuff to better use.

It would be nice to be so financially secure that we could become philanthropists and give thousands of dollars to each worthy cause that comes along, but most of us are not in that category. Yet when a disaster strikes, we can all find the money to send as aid for the stricken. Perhaps if we all looked a little more closely at what we can afford to divert away from stuff to charity, we could make a real difference for people less fortunate than ourselves.

Hopefully later than sooner, we are all going to end up in our own pine steamer trunk and we won’t be taking any of our stuff with us. It’s time to start getting ready for that spring garage sale. Somebody must need my old stuff.