That Stuff In The Attic?

Our Stuff Is Meant To Be Used.

I was driving in town and decided to cut through a few neighborhoods to reach my destination. I've always loved puttering along looking at houses, thinking of what I like and what I could do if that were my yard or that was my porch. 

The neighborhood was a well-to-do area from the early 60s and into the 70s. The homes were all similar in style and size. 

All brick ranch with a yard. 

Some had a garage, some had carports. But overall, they all looked about the same with square footage hovering around 2,100. 

Then I began to notice something. Sprinkled throughout the neighborhood were these large grandiose homes with three car garages and small-ish yards. 

As I kept driving, I noticed construction signs and homes being torn down so they could be replaced with the home of today. 

I thought to myself, well this is something. All the houses of yester-year looked about the same. Yet somewhere along the way we decided an upgrade was needed. Not just in fixtures but in home size as well. 

It left me wondering on my afternoon ride, "what do we need all that space for?"

The answer flashed in my mind: 

To house all of our stuff. 

But where does all this stuff come from? 

Some of it we buy, of course. All those clothes and shoes and purses stuffed into our master closets. Some bursting at the seams so we need to take over other closets just to make room for it all. 

The kitchen stuff and the garage stuff and the camping stuff and the reading stuff and the toy stuff. There is a lot of it and we need a place to keep it all. 

Some of it though, we inherit. Boxes of memorabilia from our childhood. No doubt unloaded from mom and dad with a big smile as they were finally transferring storage and ownership to you. 

Some if it is boxes of photos and memorandum of our families and their families. Our living, breathing family tree. 

Some of it is furniture that they couldn't part with so they made sure to drill it in our head that we couldn't part with it either. 

So where does it all go? Attics, cabinets, drawers, closets. 

Anywhere in the house it will fit. 

But I want to remind you that all that stuff was made and created to do one thing. 

To be used. 

Pots and pans were made to be cooked with. 
Books were printed to be read. 
Shoes were fashioned to be worn. 

If you aren't using all that stuff that is hiding in your home, then why are you keeping it?