Several weeks ago I packed up three garbage bags with toys: one of damaged / abused toys to discard, one of more gently used toys to give away, and one of toys to pack away for a few weeks.
This past weekend I collected a box of toys from my recently claimed home theatre / media room. I stashed them in the storage room with the previous bag of packed away toys.
Today after everyone had cleared out of the house for the day, I collected another load of toys from the home theatre in order to a clear a path to my home office.
Given that the stick was recently inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame (linkage), I must admit that my children have a glut of toys.
On a related note, our clothes dryer has been broken for 9 or 10 days. Last week we made some trips to neighbourhood and family houses to catch up on laundry. But now it’s been a while and after a replacement circuit board failed to correct the problem today, I assessed the laundry buildup from the past week. Yikes! We have a lot of clothes, too.
Admittedly there are two adults and three children in our house, but still I am embarrassed by the lack of simplicity in our lifestyle and living space. And I don’t think we are unusual in middle class North America. Something to think about as we race into the gluttonous holiday season…
(Photo: Brent and MariLynn)
I feel your pain/realization Derek. I have 2 youngsters and a wife who spends and I have that feeling all the time. There are things we all need but not to the level we bring it. After watching this video I was even more aware of the trend and never ending pile of stuff we each collect, http://www.storyofstuff.com/