Too much stuff

As I was perusing Facebook this afternoon, I noticed an exchange between my sister in law and a friend of hers about having too much stuff. This is an interesting topic of conversation among expats here in Shanghai, for two reasons. First, there is the constant juxtaposition of foreign expatriate people (like ourselves) who have a TON of stuff and all the people working for/with/around them (like our ayi and our driver) who have almost nothing (when our ayi moved to a new apartment she was able to do so using only her bicycle).

Second, though, is the fact that when you move to a place like Shanghai, it takes 8 weeks for your sea shipment (which contains the majority of your things) to arrive and 3 weeks (which contains ~10% of your things) to arrive. So, for at least three weeks, you are living with only those things that you could carry with you on your flight (or, in our case, what Michael, I, my mom, my dad, my Aunt Lisa, my Uncle Doug and my cousin Adam) could carry in two SUVs to the airport - 17 boxes in total (two of them toys for the boys). Oh, and our apartment is furnished with basic living necessities - furniture, 8 place settings of IKEA dinner ware, etc. So we didn't need to worry about things like that. But it's not the basic stuff that I think we refer to when we say we have "too much stuff". It's the accumulated, semi-consumable stuff like clothing, toys, knick-knacks, etc.

When we arrived here, we lived for three weeks with minimal clothing and roughly 40% of the boys' overall toy collection. When our air shipment arrived (which was mostly the remainder of the boys' toys and some useful kitchen items, like measuring cups and spoons), I distinctly remember thinking, "Why do we need all these additional toys? The boys have been perfectly happy without them." And I thought that for awhile, gave a bunch of toys to our ayi to give to families she knows, and went on with life.

Then, our sea shipment arrived (sans food, which was held up by customs for an additional 4 weeks, but that's a whole different story). And that's when I said to Michael, "Holy Shit!!! Why do we have all THIS stuff??" We were just fine without it. Sure, the sea shipment included some not-IMMEDIATELY-necessary-but-still-necessary items like our summer clothing, but it included a lot of stuff that we probably don't need. In fact, 5 boxes are still sitting in the hallway, waiting to be unpacked. I am going to venture a guess that we REALLY don't need that stuff. Shanghai charities, here we come. And to top it all off, there's still a lot of stuff sitting in boxes in our house in Michigan!

So the question I have for us all is this: Why DO we have all this stuff? I'm not convinced that it makes us happier, because I didn't miss it when I didn't have it. And when it arrived it just overwhelmed me - in fact, it almost made me unhappy. And now I have to clean it, wash it, dust it, organize it, or otherwise take care of it (okay, you got me there - Lily does that...but I'll have to when we lug it all back home). It reminds me of something my grandfather told me about 10 years ago. He said, "Honey, don't accumulate too much nice stuff in life. It's just more stuff to maintain, insure, or both." At the time, I ignored him. Now I think he's right on the money.

Yet...it's so EASY to accumulate more. We walk down to the underground market (a fake market about 4 blocks from our house, housed within the subway station) and there's all this STUFF that we think we need or want. Fake purses (any brand you can think of). Fake watches (same). Toys, clothing, interior decorating items, prescription glasses (actually not a bad buy, from what I hear). Shoes. Tablecloths, placemats, chopsticks. Picture frames. Just about anything you can think of, you can find there. It's cheap, esp. if you speak a little bit of Chinese and can bargain them down below the "Hi I'm a stupid tourist" price. And after all, isn't the accumulation of stuff what keeps us all employed (or, all these Chinese people) and the economy going?

Maybe. But maybe not. Chinese people don't accumulate stuff - they accumulate savings. They seem to be pretty happy, too. I've read quite a bit about how the government is trying to foster a consumerist attitude here, to make up for the falling demand from overseas (read: U.S.) customers. This might be good for their short term economy, but I wonder if it's good for the long term anything. My grandmother once told me that she felt badly for all her grandchildren, because although we have so much more stuff than she ever dreamed of as a child, none of us seem as truly happy as she remembers being - and she grew up during the Depression.

So, like my sister in law and brother, are trying to reduce the amount of "stuff" we have. Will it result in any major life changes? I don't know. But it's that much less I'll have to clean when we come home!