The Holidays And All That Crap

Every time I move to a new place, I'm always forced to make decisions about what to pack, what to give away and what to throw away. This last move, I got rid of a lot of things before I moved, but I also inherited a lot of things from my grandma, so I wound up packing and moving more stuff than ever before. Since I've moved in, I've probably found and tossed a whole dumpster's worth of stuff and I'm still up to my eyeballs in possessions. I feel good about the progress I've made at getting rid of stuff, making room for myself in my own living space and then the Holiday's kick in. Every year this happens. The consumer in me still ends up with a list of items I would like to own. The renter/mover in me doesn't ever want anything ever again. I have too much stuff as it is, why collect more? I mean, I'm in a two bedroom mobil home and you can barely even get into the second bedroom, let alone sit or lie down in it. On the one hand, I know I need to get rid of more stuff (mostly in case I move again, but also so I have room for me in my own house) and on the other hand, what if I need it later, or "oh, wow, that's were that is" but I have no place else to put it so it will eventually get lost and forgotten again. I even shop for gifts with the "crap factor" in mind for others. Even if they aren't renter/movers like me. What can I get for this person that won't end up being crap they have to store in their house? I end up buying a lot of candles and lottery tickets. Something they can use and toss. Or I make stuff that they can use. One year I made ceramic bowls. Another I made glass etched candle holders. This year I'm making hats and scarves for some, I won't say what else I'm making for those not hat oriented in case they log on and read this. It kills me (figuratively speaking) how much money some people spend durning the Holidays on crap. Even if you leave out the people who have this ridiculous notion that if they buy the perfect gift, people will love them. As a society of Americans, the idea of things, I think, has gotten way out of hand. I'm not a psychologist, I don't have any solutions or readily available answers to this die hard consumeristic psychosis, but like they say in AA (from what I've heard) admitting there is a problem is the first step. I have sworn never to become one of those people with a two car garage and no place to park the car. Or worse, have a nice size house and pay for a storage unit. My neighbor, for example, has two mobil homes practically right next to each other. Her own mobil home barely has room for two people to walk in at the same time and her other one, a double wide, acts as a storage unit with boxes and piles everywhere. So much so, that she keeps her two cats locked up in a box piled bedroom so they can't wander around the rest of the house knocking piles over. While she was in the hospital, a friend of hers from the church and I filled the dumpster just to make room in her place for her new walker. My neighbor was completely horrified when she got home because of all the "things" we got rid of while to me and the friend from the church look around my neighbors place and we can't believe that a dumpster's worth of stuff didn't even make a noticeable dent in the amount of "things" she has.
Please shoot me if I ever become this attached to overwhelming piles of useless crap.
And have a Merry Christmas.