'The Clutter Cure's Illusory Joy'

[Dick Whitman]

Some interesting nuggets in this op-ed in today's NYT, though I don't necessarily care about the main premise, something about how we still won't fill that void even after we finally tidy up our houses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/the-clutter-cures-illusory-joy.html

The nuggets:

• A few years ago - she dates it as 25 years ago - **** got really cheap, and the amount of **** that each of us owns skyrocketed. I agree with this.
• There's a bit of a pushback to this now, where people are proud not to buy things. I agree with this, too. Remember CDs? Remember DVDs? Remember books? Remember ****ing calculators?
• Robberies have declined because it's not worth it any more when you can just buy a nice TV for $150. This is interesting, too. My wife is always worried about home break-ins. We live in a reasonably nice house in a reasonably nice neighborhood. I ask her: "What the hell would they steal?" Seriously. I don't know what we have that is valuable enough to go through the effort to haul out of there. A bunch of toys, I guess.
• I also think this is a perceptive passage: But the more stuff I shed, the more I realize that we de-clutterers feel besieged by more than just our possessions. We’re also overwhelmed by the intangible detritus of 21st-century life: unreturned emails; unprinted family photos; the ceaseless ticker of other people’s lives on Facebook; the heightened demands of parenting; and the suspicion that we’ll be checking our phones every 15 minutes, forever.

It does feel like that. I wonder if it's starting to get tiresome. Just two nights ago, I said to my wife, "Can you believe that just five years ago, I used to go full weekends where I couldn't access work email even if I wanted to?

Anyway, clutter. It sucks, especially when you have little kids.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

To that last point, the sense that I'm not keeping up with SOMETHING IMPORTANT is a nagging feeling that hounds me every day. I don't remember it being like that five years ago, and I've always been a worrier.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

And I am about as non-materialistic as anyone you've never met.

 

[Boom_70]

At least there is less to keep up with on SJ nowadays. That's progress.

 

[JayFarrar]

Will need to read the piece but on the break-ins.

My house was broken into one night about 10 years ago. I had been out covering a game, then went to the office and rolled in a little after 1.

When I got home, I walked in and down the hall I went until I saw that the back door, that was in the living room, was open. At first I thought that I had left the door open by mistake, then I realized that the door frame was busted because the door had been kicked in.

They hadn't taken anything of real value. A beer mug full of change was gone but they had gone through the house. They also took my Palm Pilot because I was a dip**** then and spent money on such a worthless thing.

Cops came and made a production of dusting for fingerprints, etc. Anyway, they told me then that the robbers were likely looking for jewelry, guns and cash. They also take spare sets of keys to gain access to your house or car.

But didn't in my case.

So you may think you have nothing of value, besides toys, but you do. And, maybe more importantly, getting robbed takes away your sense of security. I slept on my couch with a baseball bat besides me and it sped up my departure plan as I had been looking for another job in another state but instead of being gone in a few months, I was out of there in six weeks.

 

[Boom_70]

At first quick glance of thread title I thought that it was a Bear fan's lament

"The Cutler Cure's Illusory Joy"

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'm not saying it never happens, Jay. But it apparently happens less than it used to. People not carrying cash has also been posited as one reason that violent crime is down in big cities. Just no incentive to robbing the Waynes after a Broadway show any more.

I don't have guns. We don't have any jewelry worth much that we don't wear on our fingers at all times. And there's unlikely to be more than $10 in cash in the house at any given moment.

 

[YankeeFan]

At first quick glance of thread title I thought that it was a Bear fan's lament

"The Cutler Cure's Illusory Joy"

Haha. That's what I thought too!

The actual article sounds interesting.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

We have a nice house in a nice neighborhood and live next door to a cop in a city where there is virtually no crime and we have a security system that would suggest we live in Suburban Detroit or Anacostia or East Palo Alto.

 

[JayFarrar]

In my town, and I suppose elsewhere, home break-ins are very much a seasonal crime.

Cold weather, nope. Warm weather, happen with great frequency as gangs of bored teenagers take to the streets. Most popular method of getting into the home is to take the smallest or recruit a much younger person who also happens to be small. Push the window AC unit into the house, throw the child in, have him or her unlock the door, then the rest go in, eat some food, drink some drink and take what they can grab. Almost always cash or video games.

Then they get beat up if they broke into the home of the grandma or auntie of a gangbanger or real criminal.

 

[goalmouth]

Any time you can work 'detritus' into a piece, call it a day and have a drink.

My town has a steady flow of break-ins, mostly because of a huge influx of Asian homebuyers who apparently keep a lot of cash in their sock drawers.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

In our leafy suburb, the crime of choice is car break-ins. Also theft from lockers at the nearby health club is so endemic the police put up a sign at the entrance.

 

[Iron_chet]

Like most I can relate to this article. We have 4 kids in our house right now, 2 teenagers, 2 little kids and the sheer amount of stuff we accumulate is astounding. We routinely get rid of bags of stuff.

Our focus has also shifted to paying for experiences rather than paying for stuff. That being said it seems like we just get more stuff for those experiences sometimes. I am driving an 8 year old minivan that is falling apart (**** Chrysler) but would rather have that car payment money go to different things.

I have had a career change and for the first time since 2002 I do not have a company issued phone and I am absolutely loving it. No more checking and responding to e-mail that could have waited until I got into the office.

I realize as I say this that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth as we spent 8K on a hot tub this past Fall. Other than it being awesome to sit and soak one of the unintended benefits is that when my wife and I sit in it we are not in front of a TV/laptop or on our smart phones. We have both noticed how great it has been to sit and have long, unhurried conversations.

 

[BTExpress]

We have both noticed how great it has been to sit and have long, unhurried conversations.

Astonishing how people cavalierly throw away this remarkable freedom under the auspices of being "needed."

 

[Dick Whitman]

What I find fascinating is that we are essentially becoming less materialistic as a society, and it's happening fast. Part of it is the backlash against the clutter that resulted from the deluge of stuff after stuff got cheap. Part of it is the functionality of smart phones, which take the place of a lot of stuff. A lot of it - from what I've read and observed - is driven by milennials. They don't want stuff. They don't even buy cars. They spend a huge percentage of their disposable income on two things: (1) Travel; (2) Restaurants.

Even in our house, you can witness the generational difference. My mom, every time she comes by, just brings over more stuff for the kids. Coloring books. Pajamas. Stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff. When we object, she says something like, "Oh, you have plenty of storage space here!"

 

[Iron_chet]

Astonishing how people cavalierly throw away this remarkable freedom under the auspices of being "needed."

Absolutely agree. I used to tell my staff that the graveyard was filled with irreplaceable men but never heeded it myself.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Absolutely agree. I used to tell my staff that the graveyard was filled with irreplaceable men but never heeded it myself.

Yeah, but the reason people are so responsive to work beckoning at all hours is precisely because they are replaceable and they know it. Don't want to be available? Fine. We'll find someone else who will.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Our house has lots of stuff. But we've lived in it for over 20 years. When you stand still, that's when stuff piles up around you. If millenials don't have as much stuff, it may be because they haven't settled in a place for awhile yet.
Or based on personal experience, it may be because their stuff is in their parents' garage.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Our house has lots of stuff. But we've lived in it for over 20 years. When you stand still, that's when stuff piles up around you. If millenials don't have as much stuff, it may be because they haven't settled in a place for awhile yet.
Or based on personal experience, it may be because their stuff is in their parents' garage.

I'm telling you. They avoid stuff. Like the plague.

 

[BTExpress]

Yeah, but the reason people are so responsive to work beckoning at all hours is precisely because they are replaceable and they know it. Don't want to be available? Fine. We'll find someone else who will.

I suppose. But if it's my day off, and I'm in the mountains, I'm just not seriously worried about coming back to a supervisor saying. "We tried to call you to come in the other day but could not reach you. We really need someone who will be more responsive to our needs. Sorry, but we're going to have to let you go."

I will stock shelves at the local supermarket before I let myself accept working in an environment as I described above.