Stream of Consciousness Sunday: It’s All About Stuff

It’s Sunday. The Lord’s Day. The day of rest. The start of a new week. However you want to slice it, this is a day of meaning. Let’s empty our brains and get our fingers burning. Heat up the keyboard and type your little heart out. Just do it in 5 minutes.

I’ve been impressed to see more and more people join in. I love reading your brain dumps. I also noticed some people write a lot more in 5 minutes than I do. So my big challenge this week was to not even look at the screen. I tend to backspace a few times if I’ve made an error (that’s different than proofreading). Halfway through, I glanced up at the screen to see THAT I WAS WRITING IN ALL CAPS. It’s so annoying and I thought, “I have to go back and change that.” But I shant. I shall leave it. Because it’s what my fingers were meant to do.

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I’m not a hoarder. Although I did grow up in a stuffed household. It was to be expected. There was my mom, my dad, 4 kids, at one point, my grandmother, and 5 cats and 3 dogs. Maybe more. I don’t remember.

Anyway, we had a lot of stuff. We weren’t materialistic by any means. I know this because we never had much money. But we always had stuff. Our house was cluttered.

I swore never to be that way even though as a little girl I contributed quite my fair share to the problem. I remember getting upset because my mother was mad I hadn’t cleaned the room. I felt she should simply be happy with the fact that I cleared a path on my floor from the doorway to the bed.

Now I’m all grown up. Life in an 850 sq ft apartment was easy. Every SaTAURDAY, I COULD SPEND AN HOUR AND CLEAN THE ENTIRE PLACE TOP TO BOTTOM. IT WAS SPOTLESS AND MY LIFE, WITH MY IKEA FURNITURE, WAS SIMPLE.

NOW, I LIVE IN 3300 SQ FT. THERE ARE 3 of us. And 2 cats. And a dog. And we have more stuff than I can bear to look at. It’s not valuable stuff. It’s just stuff. It’s hard to part with it because I attach sentimentality to too many things. Or I want to hold on to it “just in case” or I don’t want to throw it away because thatw ould be wasteful.

I’d rather have a cabinet full of wastefull than have a house that was uncluttered. And I’m trying to change,. I’m trying not to be that way.

I oncew helped out with an estate sale. I saw how a couple form the Depression saved everything. And I saw what a massive burder it was to clean out the remains of decades of saving. Of saving EVERYTHING. It wasn’t hoarding by any means. It was just a lot of stuff. I don’t want to be that couple.

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Now…

1. Grab the button

(it’s now over in the sidebar – fingers crossed that it’s acting right)

2. Write your post.

3. Link up here.