As Christmas draws nearer, I am reminded just how much STUFF everybody has in this country. All right, maybe not everybody, but definitely the majority of the population. The crazy amounts of things may be plastic instead of wooden, but the bottom line is that all the social-economic levels except extreme poverty have items with too many additions to it (in the USA).
For example, in the children's world we have Toys R Us providing the flamingo pink plastic dollhouse with basic machine stamped accoutrements, Pottery Barn Kids providing the basic wooden dollhouse with cute little wooden accoutrements, on up to the Smithsonian's collection of at least 10 very small metal handpainted accoutrements per room. Even the dolls have a huge amount of "support gear." I'm not kidding when I say that I had less stuff for Elle than most doll sets.
As I looked through catalogues of options for Elle, I loved the ones that had a nice concept with a few pieces to it...versus the insane Fisher Price catalogue that gave me a bigger headache every time I turned the page. I honestly think that I would have avoided playing with most of the toys as a kid just to avoid having to pick it all up afterwards.
I think there is an important psychological point here. When we have this much STUFF, do we appreciate it?
This past summer I went through and easily got rid of 50% of our possessions. Now instead of walking through each room with blinders on, I tend to look around and even stop to look at something that means a lot to me.
I think people are making a mistake in having our kids go down the same materialistic track where they have so many things that appreciation for what they own diminishes.
