so much … stuff

We just finished our self imposed challenge to get rid of 100 things in 100 days.  A highlight was gifting on Buy Nothing a bike I’d been meaning to sell for over two years.  Jack also got rid of some soccer cleats he’d had at work for well over a year, having intended to sell them on eBay.  Most items went to Goodwill, including many kids’ books which had come from there in the first place.  I was surprised by how much the small gesture of listing a discarded item was just enough of a reward to be motivating.  We have a long way to go to make our house and lives more manageable.

This weekend D and I are going to two birthday parties, for which we are bringing gifts.  I think I managed to think of good ideas for the brithday boy and girl, but I certainly appreciate that the vast majortiy of kids’ parties we are invited to request us to not bring gifts.  It is better for everyone.

Perhaps I have a warped image of myself, but I really don’t think I’m particularly un-generous.  Giving meaningful gifts or ones where I’m confident that I have a great idea is really fun and rewarding.  Unfortunately most gift-giving occaisions are just not like that.

On the recent occaision of D’s fourth birthday, we limited the grandparents to only giving one gift.  They mostly stayed the course and he got very nice things: one hand made ukelele case, a game he’s played several times already, an easel he’ll use for years and “experience” gifts that make memories instead of clutter.  

Looking around our house, there are so many things Jack and I have given each other as gifts.  Some are great, but they can’t all be.  As we embark on our second 100 things in 100 days challenge, giving Jack some tangible gift for Father’s days just seems perverse.

In a few months we’ll have been in our house for two years, with more space than we’ve ever had before.  We stayed at our Boston apartment for three years, followed by a major possessions purge when we only kept things that we mailed back to Seattle.  In Seattle we spent about  two years in two different apartments on the same floor of the same building.  Prior to this, moving has been the primary method of controlling the volume of our possessions, so we really need to stay on top of it so that we don’t drown in stuff in the decades we hope to spend here in our house.