Gretchen Rubin made a case, in the August 19th Sunday NY Times, for good “stuff.” She acknowledges that getting control over our accumulations gives you a healthy sense of control over life in general, and offers statistics supporting our overwhelming surrender to our stuff: that10% of American households rent storage units, that 25% of 2-car garages are not used for cars.

But she also argues that “possessions can boost happiness.” They reflect our identity, remind us of loved ones, and commemorate important moments. Many of us need order and simplicity in our lives but “also need luxurious abundance and collections of things that are precious to us.”

The challenge is to separate the richly associative things from the dispensable. Rubin remains mindful of three pitfalls that undermine the decision to discard. 1. the longer something is in our possession, the more valuable it seems. 2. procrastination emits a powerful charm. 3. nostalgia can distort the value of anything. Her technique for paring down is to display prominently one item that best embodies something or someone important and to discard the rest. One elevated icon stands in for many lesser objects. A creative suggestion worth a try.

topics: culture