PBP12: J is for Junk
(Still catching up.)
Though a definitive date has not yet been set- there’s an inspection to be done, and more paperwork to be signed- my father has mostly completed the process of buying his first house, and I will be moving to North Carolina to live with him sometime at the end of this month or the beginning of July.
This means a lot of things to me. I am leaving the house of my childhood. I am getting the fuck out of Connecticut. I am getting a chance to make a fresh start at my life and the person I want to be. I am getting a chance to make new habits and leave unhealthy ones behind.
It also means I have to pack my crap.
I am 25 years old, and I am very much a product of my time. I was a spoiled child, and now I’m a spoiled pseudo-adult. All three of my parents collect things, and so do I. I love to shop and go antiquing and pour over piles of junk hoping to find a treasure. I have found a lot of treasures. It’s funny how treasures can be junk at the same time, though.
What does this have to do with religion? I can hear.
I think American pagans fall into the same consumerist trap that American non-pagans fall into. We are conditioned to want, conditioned to believe that wanting something is the same as needing it. We see as many as 5,000 advertisements a day; it’s no surprise we are materialistic and consumed by debt.
I remember my early pseudo-Wiccan days- to begin with, they were in high school, which I think we all know is a hotbed of conformity and consumerism. I had 101 books telling me all the religious bits I had to acquire- an athame, a boline, a chalice, goddesses statuary, god statuary, a nice altar cloth, a wand, robes, incense, and more. I walked into pagan stores, locally and elsewhere and was bombarded with crammed-to-the-gills shelves of knick-knacks and tools; there was always so much to see that you almost couldn’t see anything. There was one particular store that I went to the most (though I only went every six months or so) that had several working altars set up in the store by the owners, and more than once I was instructed by them about all the stuff that should be there. That the crammed tables were the way my altars were supposed to look. I don’t think my experience was all that different from the norm, as far as pagan shops go.
Unfortunately I applied those teachings, unintentionally, to my non-Wiccan practice. I have shelves and shelves of stuff for mindfulness that I hardly ever look at. I have so many things to beautify my space that all I can see is a heap.
Unfortunately with a month before I move, I don’t have time to do a proper purge- at least, not if I intend to try to sell my belongings instead of donating them. (And I’m broke, so selling is my preferred option if I can.) But since my packing method- as strongly encouraged to almost being forced by my mother- is to photograph everything before it gets boxed, once I move I can ‘sort’ through things that are really important and things that aren’t without even opening the boxes until I’m ready.
My goal is to cut my belongings in half. I literally want to purge 50% of my belongings- more is good, but a clean 50% is the goal. I am tired of being lost in my own belongings, of feeling depressed because my natural inclination towards slobbishness has resulted in a pile that is drowning me. I hate feeling so overwhelmed and materialistic.
Does your junk- religious or otherwise- own you? What are you going to do about it?
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Yikes! Good luck with the uncluttering!
I recognize the problem but I have to say that I managed to get selective about what I buy quiet early on. What I have, I use regularly. If it starts gathering dust, I’ll have to reconsider my items.
I think you’re very brave for trying to let go of 50 percent of your stuff. I know I would never be able to. So I wish you strength and good moods through it all!
Thanks!
I’ve gotten better about my intake- when I shop, I only buy things that I really love. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help with the stuff I already have, and the stuff my family (particularly my mother) regularly gets me.
It’s going to be a lot harder to pare down to 50% when I’m actually doing it, I suspect. Thanks for the well wishes! I suspect I’m going to need them!
I’m a devoted Flybaby ( http://www.flylady.com ). It has helped me reduce my magical and spiritual junk to just the bare necessities. And I could probably reduce more, since I don’t use an altar anymore, just a ‘shrine’ in the kitchen window with a couple of offering cups.
I tried a while back to get into FlyLady, but I just found it very overwhelming. I’m a recent convert to Unfuck Your Habitat (http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/) because it’s directly geared toward the lazy.
I checked it out – it seemed pretty much the same thing, but with different choice of words. Unfuck vs declutter. 20/10 instead of 15/15, make bed instead of clean sink. Emphasis on small habits that you build up to make tomorrow (or later today) easier.
UFYH calls it laziness, Flylady calls it perfectionism that overwhelms you so much you don’t even start. Whatever it’s called, the cure’s apparantly the same.
My actual method for dealing with too much stuff is to shove it all in a closet. My preferred method would be to get rid of it all. But I’m very much my mother’s daughter and: “What if you need that someday?” since money is always tight, and we try to reuse things as much as can be, getting rid of something that has no purpose now, it just might be that perfect box for some other project down the line. It’s a hard balance to find.
Once you’re in your new place, the advice I’m considering might work for you too: one box at a time. Go through a small pile of stuff (one drawer maybe?) and keep only what you really love. Put the rest in a box, and then immediately get rid of that one box. Then go do something else until you’re ready to get to the next box. Otherwise, it’s just moving things around from box to box and nothing ever seems to leave the house. It just gets shoved back into a closet in a different box.
Amanda recently posted..My relationship with photography
Oh my. I’ve been there several times but in my case it was moving between continents for grad school and later for work. Getting everything down to 20 kg and at most 2 suitcases is TOUGH! I got out of the habit of accumulating clothes and I’ve learned to start early….like, five months early….when it comes to packing. Good luck!
I’ve never been to Connecticut but I think you’ll like it in North Carolina. I spent a few summers there and thought it was beautiful. A fresh start is *always* terrific