Stuff!

The other night I was working in the Myrtle Beach camp store and a Grandmother was treating her grandson to shopping.  They brought a few things up to the register, one of which was a Davy Crockett fake fur hat. The Grandmother said to the boy, will you wear this?  I spoke up and said, you aren’t going to wear that silly hat.  The boy acknowledged he wouldn’t.  They left with some candy and stickers.  After they left the staffer said we were to encourage sales.  I replied that was not a consumer philosophy I could support.  We buy stuff we don’t need and it is suppose to make us happy?

In 2016 when I sold my three story Washington D.C. row house, and got rid of most of my worldly possessions I thought I was done visiting donation bins.  Naught.  In 2016 I wrote about getting rid of my stuff, click link. 

I can’t believe after living in a 20 foot Airstream I still have too much stuff.  I always have a plastic sack under the dinette for stuff to drop in a Goodwill bin.  But this month as the temperatures drop, I pulled all the plastic tubs from under my bed and did another purge.

How many pairs of black pants do I need?  Two, one to wear and one in the dirty close hamper.  Same goes for leggings and tops.  I really don’t need all these clothes.  I hate to admit it, but when you live in an travel trailer in campgrounds wardrobe is not your primarily consideration.  I can wear the same clothes for several days, especially when I am doing fire pit duty.   In the category of TMI, I can go several days without showering, when not on fire pit duty.  Sad but true.

This month I have reduced stuff and eliminated several plastic storage bins.  Progress to having nothing, and ‘poof I will disappear’.

I realize retail workers are suffering, not to mention the stores they worked in.  Our economy is based on consumerism, but with the virus and so many stores closed, maybe we can learn to do with less.  

I know I can.