illegitimi non carborundum

Here's an excerpt from an article on boston.com today about just how many New Englanders have acquired so much stuff that the use of storage units has skyrocketed:

In the 21st century, the attic, basement, two-car garage, and barn no longer cut it to contain the overflow of material things. Self-storage units have become an addition to the home for stowing books, records, toys, wine, artwork, furniture, computers, pianos, paper products, kayaks, golf clubs, snowboards, barbecue grills, camping gear, farm machinery, collectibles, and a mountain of other things.

Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, says Americans became much more mobile last century. In the 21st century, he says, it won't be uncommon for a person to live in 8 to 10 different places over their lifetime.

''We still very much value the old Currier & Ives, Norman Rockwell notion of home with a capital H," he said. ''Yet, at the same time, many of us are not living in places that have any history of our life."

Material goods, Thompson says, have come to define who we are.

''Our stuff has become the evidence of our history and existence," noted Thompson, whose own matchbox cars and other childhood treasures are boxed up in a self-storage unit in Illinois. ''However, we would like who we were to be kind of out of the way. A museum of ourselves, but not one that's in our faces. The attic, basement, three-car garage and when that's filled up, the storage unit."

This article made me really sad. Partly because I can totally identify with these sentiments; I have so much crap, and not enough space to store it all. But mostly because I realize just how much of the country is living this way, and how gluttonous that sounds when you think about it as a national issue. Eww, I just picture useless crap cluttering up houses and yards all over the country. What a waste.

I don't want to live this way. The more you have, the more you worry about not having. No wonder we're so stressed out... there's too much stuff everywhere.