In praise of stuff

I agree with lemongrove when she says ‘do what makes you happy’.

Unless it’s a serious hoarding issue which could cause significant safety and health issues, then what someone likes to have in their home is their own business, really.

I’m rather like MOnica - we have a lot of things in each room which we love as they hold a special meaning, turning our house into a home, but every so often, we will get rid of some things or add something new. As for books, I have a lot, but every so often will have a clear out, although there are some I will never part with.

Paperwork gets filed and shredded when necessary, and magazines get passed on or recycled.

I’m sure my home will not to be everyone’s taste, but not everyone has to live here!

I personally dislike minimalism, it is not to my taste, though I know others love it, and that is their choice just as it’s my choice to have “stuff”. What I do dislike is untidiness, and everything has to go in its place once I’ve used it.

I must add, though, that as I’m typing this, I’m looking at my mantelpiece and think there’s too much on it, but not really sure where to put the excess!! Oh dear.. ??

Then,* monica* , you are following Marie Kondo to the letter: you are keeping things that bring you pleasure. She wrote originally for the Japanese. Shinto and Buddhism both abhor unnecessary possessions, and Japanese houses tend to be small, so that makes a difference. I have a lot of tchotchkes that people have given me, mostly from my children, but also relatives and in- laws. None of them are necessarily to my taste, but I can’t get rid of them, for sentimental reasons. Marie Kondo suggests photographing them and keeping them in a virtual album, but I have mine corralled in a display cabinet. However, when I moved I did get rid of all but six dinner plates- I had 52, of different vintage and patterns!

I keep things so long, maybe up to 20 years, but then if I really do not like them they go, no matter how sentimental the connections. I have just sold an ornament that none of us liked, that I inherited from my mother. She was a lady of impeccable taste and this item was the one occasion it deserted her and she bought something that was truly ugly, somehow that endeared it to me. But she died in 1997, 22 years ago. I finally decided enough was enough and it has gone

DH has just bought a lovely antique barometer. Two ornamental wall tiles given to me by my sister years ago are going to make wall space. I do not dislike the tiles, but I have just decided they have had their day and owe me nothing. I expect my sister has by now long forgotten she gave them to me - and the barometer is attractive and DH is delighted with it.

When we downsized, a good few years ago now, DH wanted to hire a skip and I said "No" as didn't want the neighbours to think our house was full of junk. However, after numerous runs to the local tip and various trips to charity shops I began to wish we had got a skip. DD also said nobody would want my old furniture but she was proved wrong as driving through town one day passing one of the charity shops we had donated to you their window had a display of my old kitchen dresser, my bureau and a couple of Edwardian chairs. I popped into town and took a photo and sent it to her to prove a point and it all went within the week. I am not a hoarder but do like "stuff". The only thing I had difficulty with was clearing the walls of pictures, drawings, etc. We couldn't use our main bathroom in the new property for months as the bath was the resting place for pictures, tapestries, etc, that I couldn't bear to part with. Luckily we had the luxury of an en-suite in our new property but that just meant it became more difficult to part with them but I did do a clearance exercise eventually.

Callistemon when I left home I discovered on my first visit back that my mum had got rid of the furniture in my bedroom and my dad had installed his model railway in there!

My sister-in-law unearthed dh's Muffin The Mule and the membership card from the depths of MIL's house.

SueDonim my mother gave my nearly new bedroom furniture away to another family member!

I can still remember it [ sad] but I suppose she bought it, not me.

Callistemon, do we have the same mother!?

My mother was, probably still is, completely uninterested in anything which isn’t functional, we never had any ornaments or pictures, nothing which didn’t have a use. If you gave her a card for her birthday, she’d open it, say Thankyou, and put it straight in the bin.

I think this is why I like nice things around me, I get pleasure from just having them, but I am tidy, and everything has a place, so I don’t see a problem.