When is there an oversupply? Probably like we say when there is a drinking problem or a gambling problem: when things are obstructing and limiting or damaging more than helping or giving pleasure. We have plenty of shelves in our office but we finally got to the point of having an oversupply of books. When we had to pile them on the floor, stack them on our desks and search for ways to insert a few in the space left above short books, we felt that was too much.
Clothes, friends, food, wines and other drinks - probably could have, maybe we do have an oversupply. How about tv channels, music stations, kitchen utensils? When we get in a dumping, stripping, lightening mood, Lynn likes to ask whether we have used the item in the past year. I am hesitant to endorse one year as the criterion period for everything. Some things are meant to be kept longer.
I have had my high school yearbooks for 60 years but I am reluctant to toss them in the trash. I am not sure just why. It is quite possible that nobody at all will ever look through them. However, now that they have come to mind, I might see if my 16 year old high school student greatgrandchild would be interested in them. I know that an ancient Egyptian papyrus is valuable in large part because it has survived for so long. Should I try to have my high school yearbooks survive for 2000 years?
We both got a lot from the book "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett. In one of his books, he warns that a dejunking sign should be raised when we need a bigger house to hold our stuff or we want to rent a storage locker for that purpose.
If we are impeded by the yearbooks, that might be a sign that it is time to get rid of them, one way or another. One definition of pollution is too much of one thing in a given space. The yearbooks sit quietly in an out-of-the-way bookshelf in the basement. They haven't been impeding us or lowering the quality of our lives. On the other hand, I haven't checked them in a long, long time. Maybe they aren't there any more. Maybe real bookworms or bookmites or chipmunks or simple age has so deteriorated them, that they are now useless. Am I yearbook-negligent? Am I a poor custodian of my yearbooks?
What about years of life, parties, trips, blessings, challenges? Can there be an oversupply of those? How can I get rid of a few extra years I really don't need? Is there a Year Watchers group I can attend to be inspired to dump a few years? Want to start a local Blessings Watchers group with me?
