Barbara,

As we enter a new year, with all the gifts we received at Christmas, you can’t help but notice that, as a society, we’ve got a lot of stuff.

In an Atlanta Journal Constitution article, columnist Jim Auchmutey quoted comedian George Carlin as saying, “The essence of life is trying to find a place to put all your stuff.”

Auchmutey wrote that there are 32,000 self-storage businesses nationwide (or the equivalent of 1.3 billion feet of rentable space), 620 in Atlanta alone (twice as many as a decade ago), and 100 million storage containers are sold by Rubbermaid every year.

This “stuff” explosion peculiar to Americans has led to a new profession: the professional organizer. Some POs charge as much as $75 an hour to help people get organized in this culture of clutter. (Jim Auchmutey, Our Overflowing Lives, Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 20, 2002.)

Quick Cents Application Points:

1. If you have a storage space, how much do you spend each month storing your stuff and when was the last time you actually reviewed all the stuff you store?
2. What can you do to reduce the amount of stuff you currently have? Who could you bless by giving away the things you no longer use or need?
3. Discuss how often you impulsively buy things and later realize you don't need.