Stuff Theory: a 3-part blog

Stuff. We've all seen it. Looking into one of those garages that resembles an I-SPY puzzle book. Seeing footage on the news of a neighborhood after a hurricane. Stuff is a gathering of things in such a way that the individual things are no longer useful because they are abused and lost. In other words, if the owner needed some-thing in the stuff, they wouldn't know how to find it and if they found it it would most likely be in bad condition. So the things, collectively, no longer become things. They are now just “stuff.”

A couple years ago, while looking at one of the aforementioned garages, I developed what I like to call “Stuff Theory.” Although it is still a work in progress, I decided to introduce it in a 3-part blog:

• The difference between “Things” and “Stuff”
• How things degenerate into stuff
• How to have things, and avoid having stuff

Part One: Things vs. Stuff

Imagine a desk. On it are papers, books, pens, coffee mugs, pictures, a computer, a calculator, and all the usual accoutrements of a desk. Imagine that they are all placed very specifically – the papers in a file, the books on a shelf, the mug on a coaster, the pens in a drawer, etc. Each of the things on the desk are distinct from one another, and can easily be located in their proper place and in proper condition should their services be required. 

Now, shake the image like a snow globe and watch the things float down onto the desk in a pile. If you needed a pen, a receipt, or a calculator now they would be hard to find and probably banged up. Before we had things, but now there is just a single unit of stuff. 

The difference between things and stuff is NOT simply organization.

Imagine that a person sits down at that very same desk and knows exactly where everything is. He placed every individual thing precisely where it is, and could find each thing blindfolded. To anyone else, the desk is covered in stuff, but to that person it still holds his things. They are still “organized” in his unique fashion, and still useful to him.

Likewise, imagine that you are sitting at a desk that is covered in neat files, drawers, and boxes that are meticulously labeled... in another language. Because you would be unable to find anything you needed, the things in front of you, regardless of how organized they are, would be considered “stuff.”

The second law of Thermodynamics states that entropy is always increasing... meaning that our things over time and use, become "stuff" naturally. Part two of this blog will outline the processes that encourage this entropy. Part three will outline the processes that discourage it. 

Hopefully, my fellow minimalists will find this helpful.