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Stocking Up 101: Stuff {Storage, Part I}

Have you ever had a friend so insistent on having their own way, so oblivious to your needs, so craving the spotlight that they would do anything for it?

That’s how stuff is. Stuff takes over, messes things up for everybody but itself, merrily steals time and space while offering little in return except dust mites and mold and clutter.

Stuff is something that’s just gotta go. The thing is, not everything is stuff.. Some things are not just useful, but invaluable, absolutely necessary for our well-being in a post-industrial world. But these necessities can quickly become stuff and deplete our space, as well as our finances and well-being.

Example: in the spring of 2007, I made a bulk purchase of Jason Sunbrellas, an excellent sunscreen. Thanks to my wannabe farmer status, I’d been going through almost a tube of it a month and considered this a wise bulk purchase.

Two months later, I was offered a new teaching job, which I accepted. A month or so later, I was offered my current job. Needless to say, the amount of time I spent mowing and pruning raspberry bushes and building garden beds was slashed to almost nothing.

I still have five tubes of the sunscreen. And even though it’s possible I’ll use one more tube over the next year, it’s just as likely I won’t. All in all, a wash.

There’s also all the paint I’ve bought on sale over the last five years. Gallons and gallons of the stuff. Most left unused. All of it purchased on impulse — I just couldn’t stand to see those lovely big gallons with prices slashed to $5 languishing on the store cart.

Well, they’ve languished at my old place — gallon cans, quart cans, everywhere, gathering dust, drying up, losing their lids, falling over, quickly becoming totally useless.

All in all, not a wash — a total bomb and waste of money. I’d experiment with them, yes, or use a dab to liven up the paint I actually used. And so they became energy robbing, attention grabbing, money sucking parasites, demanding my constant attention, virtually shrieking LOOK AT ME! at every turn.

But not everything vanishes into the blackhole of stuff. There are all the feather comforters I’ve purchased over the years — three of them in 2002 alone, purchased at that time to ward off chill in the winter and decrease my energy usage. One of the best things I’ve ever stocked up on.

And what about my thirty pounds of coffee? Or all that baking soda? Or my obsessive purchases of Frontier dehydrated bulk goods through a coop? Or the bazillion beautiful, luxurious soaps I purchased at a fraction of the price back in 2001? Or all that damned shampoo?

All have proven time and money savers - even the soap and shampoo. I’ve already almost run out of the shampoo. And the soap? I won’t have to worry about buying it for a good 10-20 years.

I think the trick is to be constantly mindful. Impulse stocking up can be dangerous indeed, and even if it does work out (as in the case of my soap and shampoo), the exceptions don’t prove the case.

Instead, come to know what you need and actually use, and examine each potential purchase with a critical eye. And do it over time — a bit here, a bit there — rather than all at once.

That way, you’re stocked with things you’ll actually use, rather than stuff robbing you of your money and energy and space.

It’s all pretty self-evident, and I don’t doubt everyone here already knows it. But it bears repeating, just in case.

Next week, we return to the scary survivalist book and look at actual storage.