Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Gravitational Pull of Stuff

I had to buy a printer today. I thought I could get by without a printer, but that's not going to work, after all.

Every time I buy a durable good, it weighs me down. It's something I'll have to divest myself of later. And while often I can shrug this off, sometimes it makes me wistful.

Like: I have become fond of my vacuum cleaner.

Is there a tipping point of stuff accumulation that creates a gravitational pull toward geographic inertia? I'm not there yet, but I will confess to having cast about for a U.S. location for next year. Just because of my stuff.  

Like: I am reluctant to leave behind my car again.

As I set up my printer today, I told myself that buying such items is a just a matter of overhead - the cost of living in a place, and not to attach any more meaning onto it than that.

All my stuff three months ago.

2 comments:

AE Challinor said...

I completely understand. I want less stuff, but moving recently really tested that. I "purged" (but not enough - sentimentality held me back). And now there's the appeal of decorating my new place... More stuff I don't need but that makes me feel good.

Mzuri said...

"More stuff I don't need but that makes me feel good."

I KNOW - this instinctive drive was so difficult for me to fend off when I first landed in NM!