Sunday, January 21, 2007

the accumulation of stuff

i had the privilege this weekend to throw out mounds of old junk that my parents no longer wish to store for me. there were a lot of clothes from the 90s that look really bad now, so those were easy to deal with. the hard things are the ones that were given to me over the years - this or that memento of someone's trip, or other presents that were ornamental rather than practical in nature. i suppose the good thing about buying things like clothing is that it can be obvious when it's time to get rid of them. there is no purpose to a shirt that has gone completely out of style, but things that were essentially useless to begin with are harder to throw away. it's like the entire purpose of owning them is showing your respect for the gift giver. so today i was thinking about all the money one can spend on clothes which then become uselessly unfashionable, but maybe it's better to buy things that are easily discarded. that way, the piles of old junk are easier to manage.

1 comment:

mj said...

ha. beautiful theory.