Letting go of stuff

Victor LeBeau, economist in the 1950s. From "Story of Stuff"

The average house size has doubled since the 1970s. Ever the contrarians, the Capt and I have just moved into a place that is actually smaller than the one we left. Square-footage-wise, not much smaller, but it has one bedroom instead of two, the closets are minimal and some ingenuity is going to be required to shoehorn ourselves in here. We do have a little rented storeroom where some stuff is going. And the Capt has a place for his tools where the project boat, the Green Flash, awaits her transformation. But we've both done a lot of soul-searching about what we could do without.

The most radical sacrifice I've made so far is to give away about half my wardrobe. Being a thrift-store junkie,  I didn't consider it as big a loss as it might have been if I shopped at Neiman Marcus. I did it fast, and transported the bags to the recipients fast, before I could change my mind. Some of the items were festive — silk blouses, for instance — so maybe Christmas will be a little brighter for a few of the women who lost so much in hurricane Jimena. The Capt is of the opinion I could give half of what I have left, pointing out that my closet rod is bowing, but I'll have to think about that. This morning I gave away an extra coffeemaker, and I've been eyeing some other things I could live without.

Since whatever's on my mind always seems to manifest in reality, it was inevitable that this 20-minute video, "Story of Stuff," showed up when I was reading Slate magazine recently. Annie Leonard authored and hosted the production to explain why a linear system of never-ending consumerism won't work in a finite world. Well, unless we hurry up and start new generations of consumers on other planets, that is. An ugly thought.

Did you know that 99% of what Americans buy is trashed within six months? ¡Caramba! And did you know that the drive to consume with its twin concepts of perceived obsolescence and planned obsolescence were created on purpose in the 1950s to super-drive the US economy?

Imagine, if you can, how Teresa, a woman sailor who's cruising the Atlantic coast in a 27-foot boat, with only her cat for company, manages to keep her possessions down to a quantity that would fit in a vessel that size. (I also try to imagine what courage it would take to do what she's doing. She's one of my new heroes, a madwoman now contemplating crossing the ocean. Reminds me of Tanya Aebi, author of Maiden Voyage, who circumnavigated at age 17. But that's another post.) And Dave, a blogger Teresa admires, is going even further by limiting his possessions to no more than 100 items. He calls it the 100 Thing Challenge. Now, that idea just takes my breath away.