It's far harder to amass stuff than to get rid of it

When I left home to start a two-decade foray in Asia, all I owned fit in one suitcase. Not any suitcase, the nearly extinct fabric-covered cardboard type with rusty metal snaps that only twine and a prayer held together. Now when I look in any of my closets or cupboards they are filled with a lifetime of stuff, much of it the kind you see being sold for $10 or less at garage sales.

People love stuff. We love our things. No matter how big or small, pretty or functional, expensive or cheap; we need to have the bits and pieces that make us who we are.

Stuff falls into different categories. There's useful stuff, like phones, sofas, televisions, computers and that omelet pan you stole from your mother's kitchen after getting your first apartment. Then there's sentimental stuff, like frayed school jerseys, a plastic tiara you wore to a bachelorette party, matchbooks that come with some great memories and some of you'd rather forget.