Stuff

I am going through a serious getting rid of 'stuff' phase. It is astounding just how much rubbish we cart around with us in our lives. Of course we don't need it all, but I guess there is a lot of sentiment attached to it, as if our 'stuff' defines us, gives us our identity. Where are we or who are we without it? Do we become lost, without our material identity?

I like my books, and I don't mean novels I just read the one time and then keep on the shelf for ever. I like my reference books, and my travel books. I like those blue japanese bowls that my mum and Dad bought me in Selfriges, and I like the old piggy bank that Dad bought from Sweden. I like the green dragon soft toy that used to belong to my grandmother, and I like all those old handbags I've packed away in boxes ( for design reference - apparently). But do I really NEED them? I could live without them, and my life would not lack comfort. The problem is that they just take up so much space, and there are so many things like that, which can be kind of justified as worth keeping, but are they worth keeping if only to be left in a box in a storage unit?

I'm taking the long term view, one day I'll live in a house, and have some room for all these books and toys and souvenirs. For now I'm content to be aghast at the consumerism around us, and try very hard not to accumilate too much more 'stuff'.

In his book "do androids dream of electric sheep" Philip K. Dick describes the detritus in our lives as 'kipple'. the word has really stuck with me, I like the sound of it, and it's what i call this 'stuff' to myself. I looked it up on Wikipedia:

'Kipple'
popularised by science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It refers to unwanted or useless junk that tends to reproduce itself. Some of Dick's descriptions of it suggest an analogy to entropy. According to two characters from the book, John Isidore stated that the first law of "kipple" is that "kipple" drives out "nonkipple"; Buster Friendly liked to declare, "Earth would die under a layer — not of radioactive dust — but of kipple."
Other forms of the word used in the novel include "kipple-ized", "kipple-factor", and "kippleization". People can turn into "living kipple". An apartment can become "kipple-infested".
"There's the First Law of Kipple," he said. "'Kipple drives out nonkipple.' Like Gresham's law about bad money. And in these apartments there's been nobody there to fight the kipple."

with the news programs constantly reporting on the need for us to produce less domestic waste, and recycle more, in order to save our environment, this description feels quite pertinant. But what can i do? I want to get rid of things, but not create waste, and am constantly accumilating more 'kipple' in my life every day. It's a dilema.

I might turn to the humble car boot sale to sell some things, perhaps this will provide me with a guilt free way to reduce my 'kipple'