Comments on: The Stuff-Lover’s lament

By: Sari O.

Sari O. — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:37:53 +0000

I’m trying to find an eloquent way to say yes! yes! yes!

With a household of two creative people and piles of Stuff That Might Be Useful For Making Things, I’m resonating with this big and loud. Also, for a future drama teacher, there’s the Stuff That Would Make Excellent Props One Day pile. It’s in the Might, the Could, the Would that the potential lies. Thank you!

By: fibowman

fibowman — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:59:37 +0000

@Bullwinkle – sorry about the bunny trail! Glad you found it worthwhile in the end. Good luck with the letting go of stuff.

@Venus – hehe; I think I’ll be putting some on Etsy, so you’ll have your chance to add to your stash. Or to resist, if that’s the wiser choice!

@Birdy – lots of people seem to be finding those words make sense to them. Funny thing is, I’d never articulated it either until I sat down to write this post. So maybe we all sorta know it but don’t really understand why it’s so hard to let go.

@Tammy – thank you! Feel free to share wherever you like. We Stuff-lovers need solidarity in our grief! The site banner is from Hamadryad: Oak (if you’re interested, there’s a notecard of her in my shop).

PS. I adore Leah.

By: Tammy Vitale

Tammy Vitale — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:27:04 +0000

p.s You bannerhead is amazing!

By: Tammy Vitale

Tammy Vitale — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:26:11 +0000

A fellow stuff saver (artist) sent this to me. I LOVE it. It is perfect and so hits the nail on the head. I’m going to share it over on FB. And probably blog about it this week. Because, as I said, it is perfect. We are grieving what might have been. We are there with you (I just worked through my office, my jewelry room, my garage and basement studio and my shed. I SO get this!). I’m also going to subscribe. And I see we have Leah Piken Kolidas in common too.

By: Birdy Diamond

Birdy Diamond — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:52:30 +0000

OMG! You have just summed up a huge chunk of my life in one paragraph!

“Because for a Stuff-lover, we’re not just letting go of the stuff itself. We’re also letting go of the Things We Will Never Make With It. No matter that mostly we didn’t even know what they might’ve been. No matter that we can almost certainly get more stuff just like it should we ever need to. No, what matters is the loss of the potential in that stuff. The loss of what they might have been or meant or signified to us. And that loss hurts.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting into words what I knew, but never knew until now.

This will make my own much-needed clearing-out so much easier.

Again, thank you.