'Stuff'-ed

This week, I wanted to take a closer look at Chapter 4, Chronic Congestion. Although the authors go on to talk about congestion on the highways, congestion in the airports, and even congestion in outer space (not sure I buy that one yet...), the sections that really hit home for me were the opening ones on congestion in our homes.

"A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it" is the quote the authors chose to open the chapter with. And I think old George Carlin  - may he rest in peace - may have been on to something. (If you've never heard his "Stuff" routine, do yourself a favor: YouTube video of the bit from Comic Relief 1986 here. There's some cursing, so if you're at work - or just prefer reading - here's a rough transcript). Carlin was asking some of the same questions 25 years ago that the Affluenza authors are still asking: What, exactly, is the nature of the relationship between us and our 'stuff'? Why do we feel better when we're surrounded by familiar stuff? And - my focus for this week's blog - what are we going to do with all our stuff?

In the Comic Relief video, Carlin makes passing mention of 'the whole industry built up from keeping an eye on your stuff'. And the authors mention it too: they cite a 2000 paper published by the Self-Storage Association that counted more than 30,000 self-storage facilities in the US and 1.3 billion square feet of storage space. According to the US Census Bureau, the American population in 2000 was 281,421,906. That divides out to a little over 4 1/2 square feet of off-site storage space for every man, woman, and child in America!

Citing the same SSA study, the authors say the "industry has expanded fortyfold since the 1960s, from virtually nothing to $12 billion annually." This makes me wonder: What did people do with their extra stuff in the '60s or before? Did they just not have extra stuff? Did they follow George Carlin's advice and get bigger houses every time they filled one up? I'm only being semi-sarcastic here - I really can't imagine the country without self-storage facilities on the outskirts of every town.

I heard a little different take on storage facilities a few weeks back on an episode of This American Life. (Click on "Full Episode" and fast-forward to around the 6:45 mark, if you don't want to listen to the whole thing.) Sorry - no transcripts available for this one, but some highlights for those who can't listen right away:

- They also cite the Self-Storage Association. But this time (the episode premiered on 1/22/10, btw), the SSA put the square footage of US facilities at 2.35 billion - almost doubled since 2000! And that raises the average to 7.4 square feet of storage space for every American.

- The radio piece is actually about what happens when we stop using storage facilities - or, at least, stop paying our rental fees on them. After a certain amount of non-payment time, the stuff in storage becomes the property of the storage companies. The companies then auction it off, all the stuff in a storage unit at once - like a big grab-bag. The catch? The bidders aren't allowed to enter the units before bidding, so they have to rely on what they can see once the doors are opened.

- In 2007, someone bought a storage locker that had belonged to Paris Hilton. Among the items in the locker were previously unpublished topless photos. We're left to assume he probably ended up making quite a bit more money than he bid for the locker...

- Compared to Affluenza, the radio piece asks a similar question, but on a more personal level. Instead of 'What can you tell about a society from it's stuff?' (one of the Affluenza authors' broad questions), this piece asks 'What can you tell about an individual - one you've never met - from a brief glimpse of their stuff?'

Personally, I don't rent any storage space yet, but it's becoming a likelier possibility. Throughout college and a little after, I could move into a new apartment in two, maybe three car-loads. When I got married, the amount of stuff certainly increased, but we were still able to move by renting one moving van (smaller box van - not the semi-trailer sized ones!) and making a couple of trips.

No - my real problem with stuff started when my mom passed away a few years ago. Mom never threw much away, so when we cleaned out her garage we ended up hauling three tons of stuff to the dump (and paying large fees for the 'privilege' of throwing it away). We, of course, kept a lot of her stuff too. But compounding the problem was, when she passed, she was in the middle of sloooowly sorting through all the stuff from her parent's house. So guess who now has three generations worth of furniture and boxes filling up their basement and garage? It's not too bad - so long as I don't have to look at it. But it is taking it's toll, stress-wise, as I know I should be sorting through it. And as we talk more seriously about buying our first house, the fact that I have to take into consideration moving and possibly storing all my mom's stuff and grandparent's stuff would be laughable if it wasn't so true.

So how about you? Where do you fit on the 'stuff spectrum'? Still accumulating? Paring down? Just the right amount? And, as the cliche poignantly asks, do you own your stuff - or does your stuff own you?