Stuff

Mary is helping Daughter Two prepare for the move to college. This apparently involves a significant amount of shopping.

I’d have thought with the great piles of unused stuff we have sitting around the house in various drawers and bins, everything a college bound daughter could need would be right here for the taking.  This turns out not to be the case.

I’d have thought that with the daughters moving on with their lives, the household would experience a net decrease in the amount of stuff we stumble over during the course of an average day. In my dream world, they would take significant amounts of what I’ve come to think of as their stuff with them to college and on into their future worlds. It would appear that I’ve harbored some unrealistic expectations. 

It seems that moving to college and beyond involves the accretion of great whomping piles of completely new stuff. Stuff that is in some ways similar to their old stuff but sufficiently different to require time-and-space-consuming adventures in the acquisition of entirely new stuff.

The old stuff will be left behind.

With me.  And Mary.

And the dogs.

And of course, our stuff.

(Editor’s note: Mary informs me that this is not an entirely accurate rendering, that in fact, lots of the existing stuff is being recycled as college stuff. Yes, dear.)