Mennonites Don't Build Star Wars: AT-AT Walkers. Hmmm. Go figure!

Lately I have been considering a purge... I have a walk-in closet the size of small bedroom... and 2 large dressers FULL of clothes. (I do not wear most them, 'natch). I look around at my house and I want the furniture gone. And most of my belongings.

And so, I am surprised when I visit other homes and I see a picture or two. A vase with some flowers. A candle. A small item of sentimental value.

I wonder where the Knick-knacks are… the Brick O' Brack. Life's little "objet d'arts" that we seem to gather along the way. Where’s the clutter? The crap?! The shit?!?! The items we trip over. The items we pick up and think, "Who the f' gave me this plastic fake jade elephant anyway?" Where is it all hiding!?

Some folks don’t seem to have these items. And their homes don’t seem lived in. They don’t seem… real. Complete. Whole. There is emptiness there. Like a photo in a home design magazine. You know that two days after that snapshot, there will be Lego spilled out all over the floor and they break out the TV trays from closet as they eat KFC and watch derivative American television.

I have a lot of shit, though.

Do I need all this stuff? I can be like Jane Siberry (now known as Issa) who got rid of all her belongings and lives out of a knapsack? I do not know. I do not think so, though.

Part of me knows these items are gifts. And another part of me thinks this constant urge to buy each other shit is the backwash of commercialism. "You like to buy yourself shit, so…HEY! You’re friends may like some shit too! ” Slap a logo on it, charge $49.99. Make people believe they want it – no, they NEED it! – And you’re done. Prepackaged made-in-China shit for everyone! Ah. The cycle of giving.

Sigh. I have too much shit! We have over 350 DVDs. I can watch one movie a day for a year. And that doesn’t include the porn! =P

Every time I move, I purge. Old gifts. Items I don't use. Or things friends really like that I think are just okay, or don’t have the room for anymore. Or I liked it when I was a different person. Change, much like shit, happens! I used to have a "break-it" box until the commercial success of Value Village (A.K.A. the V.V. Boutique) prompted me to donate all my clutter. "Another man's trash is another man's treasure,” they say, but I think it is really... "Another man's trash is another man's future trash."

I want clean lines and open spaces. I want green growth of plants and space to grow.
And yet, I continue to buy shit? Is that hypocritical, or self-sabotaging? Again, I do not know. Probably a bit of both. It is hard do to that one should do, though. I buy locally produced items, food, etc. I take transit to stop pollution, etc., but for some reason, the Mennonites around here don’t make their own hard carved version of a Star Wars: AT-AT Walker. Can’t buy that locally! Go Figure!

And so, I am considering a Fall Purge… In spring, we open out windows and let in the sun and the air. We clean all we own and prepare for the warm days. In the fall, we shut everything up and batten down the hatches. Everything gets dusty and stale. (I swear this is the reason we really have Christmas – Bring the outdoors in, the fragrances, vivid colours in our lives to stop us all from going Shack-Whacky and doing a hatchet job one our loved ones. Oh and the gifts, don’t forget about the Chinese-made-plastic-shit-crap we give each other. That is important too! But I digress…)

So, this Fall I am purging, out with the old and in with no new. I am going to go through the closet and through the house and slowly get rid of cloths and other items. I have a storage room just begging to be emptied. To be purged. I have a box of boxes to donate to “Books for Africa.” Some I keep putting back on the shelf with the inevitable, “No. No, I may just read this yet.” I know it isn’t true. So, my new motto is “Fuck It. Just Chuck it!”

Somebody else may want it, need it, or, heck, even use it! There is a concept. Hmm. Anyone interested in a set of giant skeleton keys from a “Tuscan” house-style motif I will probably never accomplish? Going once. Going twice. Sold to the V.V. Boutique…