The Real Cost of 'Stuff'

My husband, Tom, and I are preparing to move from Denver to Raleigh. The only cross country move I’ve ever made was when I moved from Hagerstown, Maryland to Denver in 1980.

My friend Mare and I only expected to be in Denver for the summer. We put our possessions, aka stuff, in the back of her little station wagon named Butterscotch and headed west. When the summer turned into fall, we decided that we weren’t returning to Maryland.

This cross country move is different because we have a house full of stuff. Given the expense of moving this stuff to Raleigh, we’re wondering about the value of some of the things we own.

We visited my mom in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for Thanksgiving and with the expense of moving in mind, I did some power shopping on Black Friday.

I was one of those crazy people in the stores at 5:00 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving so I could get the best deals on new stuff. I bought what I’d need for my kitchen and mom graciously stored it.

Tom and I started looking at the replacement costs of what we have and asked ourselves—how much of this do we really need? Is it worth moving furniture across the country to the furniture capital of the US?

It’s easy to accumulate. We receive gifts. Someone moves and gives us some things that we might need. We see a deal we can’t resist at a yard sale. We save something we haven’t used in 2 years just in case at some time in the future we might need it.

Tom and I are seriously considering ditching most of what we own that won’t fit into Tom’s truck and can’t be mailed to mom’s house.

At first the thought of getting rid of everything produced anxiety but the more I thought about it, the freer I felt. That feeling of freedom led to a commitment to be more discerning about the stuff I accumulate in our new home.

I already have a ‘one in, one out’ policy about books and clothing. I love books and have to be tough with myself about accumulating yet another book. Although I’m no clothes horse, I realized how easy it was to buy something simply because it was on sale and developed the habit of giving something away when I bought something new.

I’m committed to using my ‘one in, one out’ policy on everything in our new home. I’m also committed to looking at the real cost of anything I bring into the house. How much of my life energy will it take to maintain, dust, move around or otherwise engage with this new item? Will I own it and enjoy it or will it own my precious time?

Time will tell if I turn over a new leaf about stuff but I’m excited about the prospect of giving it a whirl.

What do you think about the real cost of stuff?