The Tyranny of Stuff

I sing a song of excess.  Wretched excess. 

http://nypost.com/2016/05/07/homeless-hoarders-junk-train-returns-with-a-vengeance/

I don't how long the above link will be accessible, but it's a follow up story about a homeless woman in NYC and her train of stuff.  It's heart rending.  It has become this woman's daily task to move her train of stuff from point A to point B and points beyond.  At night she circles her wagons to form a protective barrier while she catches forty winks.

Here are the original stories:

http://nypost.com/2016/03/09/meet-new-york-citys-homeless-hoarder/

http://nypost.com/2016/03/09/you-son-of-a-b-tch-homeless-hoarder-pissed-her-trash-is-getting-tossed/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3486628/Homeless-NYC-hoarder-Choo-Choo-tells-left-Puerto-Rico-16-lost-4-year-old-twin-boys-auto-accident-living-fear-cops-seized-train-grocery-laundry-carts-kept-safe-night.html

Before you write off Sonia Gonzalez as just another NYC nut job, ask youself how much stuff YOU have here and there in closets, bins, drawers.  This morning I went through a bin in my kitchen filled with extra wooden spoons, kitchen gadgets... stuff I don't use on a daily basis, but may need every so often... like the turkey baster that gets hauled out every Thanksgiving.   In that bin were things I'll NEVER use again... they went into the flea market donation bag.  A week ago I cleaned out my kitchen pantry/storage shelves - and ended up with three bags of flea market donations.  I don't miss any of it.

Getting rid of storage three years ago took an albatross off my neck.  That's why I won't consider having a second home.  I tell myself that's what hotels are for.  A place to stay away from home.  I don't need a second home to fill then purge.  One is more than enough.  

Penny Pincher