From time to time, I read accounts of minimalists. They live in tiny houses and are impeccably organized. They spend no time searching for things but they have a place for everything. They have an almost monastic zeal!
I confess to enjoying pens, clocks and books. I have a rather large library but at times when I want one specific book, I can't find it. This is because although my books are on my bookshelves, they are not organized! If I were a minimalist....
So why are we so attached to our stuff? Half used bottles of shampoo, pens that no longer work, magazines that we will read 'one day'? What is this fascination?
Childhood
In my own case, I grew up in a household that did not have money to spare on things such as books or stationary. We had a set of encylopedias (not complete) that my father would get. He obtained one volume per week as he did his grocery shopping. Today grocery stores reward shoppers with appliances, but when I was a child a reward was a set of encyclopedias. I read them all! Unfortunately when I wanted to buy a book, the answer was always no because of lack of funds.
As an adult I have overcompensated and when my shelves are full of books regarding one of my many passtimes, I get rid of the books, and move on to another passion. Although I have ebooks, I find the written page more appealing.
I justify my closet by arguing that 'one day' I will wear this outfit. One day, however, eludes me and I now fill bags for Salvation Army.
Trauma
Another possible reason for our fascination with stuff, comes from trauma. If we have experienced trauma either in childhood or later we seek comfort and security. Some respond by eating or drinking to excess, but others create 'safe nets' rooms, or homes that are filled with momentos and images of the past. It is as if we are trying to recreate our past and somehow manage the trauma more effectively, We unwittingly recreate what we experienced but try to put a different perspective on it.
Fear
Fear is crippling. We live most of our lives oblivious to danger. Our lives are like those who balance on very narrow beams. We have almost no control over our health, our finances or our work situation , but ,we act as if we do. However, in some of us, there is an underlying fear. It could be loss of status, or income, or friends, or health. We fear and we live in fear. Fear, like anxiety, drives and makes us accumulate numerous items to help us in the journey and to calm our fears! I have friends who stockpile food for what they believe will be a world wide famine! I have three or four fully stocked first aid kits which I have in my car in case I come across someone in need.
Addiction
Our stuff, brings us into the mode of sensate or earthly pleasures. We enjoy what we can taste, smell, touch and hear. We can easily become so entranced by this, be it collecting art, or clocks, or music or perfumes that we buy what we clearly do not need, nor can use within a lifetime. We become addicted to these pleasures. I think our society as a whole, with its undue emphasis on feelings, is prone to this. I have known people who have numerous storage units. Their garage is full and they are filled with angst over finding their Christmas ornaments or the card that Aunt May gave them last year!
Even when we travel, we need to create at least a corner of familiarity, where we place our pens, or a book, or in my case a religious statue.
The Solution?
There are many solutions offered, but if I am right about our obession coming from an over dependence on our senses, then the solution involves denying our senses. This is best accomplished by fasting. Not intermittent fasting, but simply chosing to forgo a meal, to forgo bread, or coffee or anything we normally enjoy for no other reason that to obtain discipline over ourselves.
In the Christian tradition, fasting was a time honoured way to deepen our spirituality and to draw closer to God by means of prayer. Over the last 40 years or so, fasting has been all but neglected in the Catholic Church. Very few people fast from meat on Friday and the more the fasting and other rigours are made easier, the more we fall prey and victims to our own insatiable desires, which include among other things, sloth and the propensity to accumulate.
So if you find yourself with this problem, try to make sacrifices. While it won't make you a minimalist, it will free your mind from constant worry about where your favourite pen is, or where you last placed your keys! Now where is my charging cable for my Mac!!
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