Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Junk

Part of the Goodwood Revival preparations involved a costume fitting today, heh. I look incredibly swish in an RAF Officer's uniform, I must say ^_~ I'll have some pictures up once I pick up the costume, hehe. But anyway, since Lawrence is 6'2" and has incredibly ong legs, the costume department couldn't cater for him by themselves, so I offered to take him down to the old militaria shop where they were rented from to see what they had. And oh my god... it's one of the coolest shops in the world. It's old, but there's wall to wall stuff everywhere. Helmets, uniforms, hats, gloves, cloaks, guns, swords... it was unbelieveable. But they didn't have a cape in my size, unfortunately. Mum promised to make me one, heh. What surprised me about the shop was how much it felt like an old attic. The place was bloody huge when you took the annexes into account, and the clothes were just piled right up to the ceiling. It makes me wonder how so much stuff can accumulate in one place, and where it all comes from to begin with anyway. We clean out our attic... semi-regularly, and at the moment it's filled with quite a few bin-liners of our old toys and boxes of books. But it's still messy, and I know that's not even half the stuff we've ever owned in the past. I guess it's typical of people who tend to buy in a lot of things- and when you're in a family with three kids that can be a heck of a lot. You need to sort things out, otherwise there's just no room to move. I quite like refining collections of mine, or chucking out old things that I don't need, because it kind of signifies that I've grown past it. My room's still cluttered rather severely, but it's undergoing constant purges of rubbish and unwanted goods. My singing teacher's house... from the three or so rooms I've seen of it, is a mess. It's not an imposing mess, but you can tell it's there. Some tips make you feel uncomfortable, but all of the stuff she has piling her worksurfaces is interesting- there are instruments, songbooks, old newspapers, videos... everything you might expect from a single family that just hasn't had a sort out for a while. And they are aparrently having refurbishment done but I can't honestly see where it is. Probably underneath the stack of books, I should imagine. I don't think it's a good idea to horde things. I see these people on TV who've kept absolutely everything they've ever owned, even down to food recepticles, and it's just... too much. What's often said in defence is either "It's something of sentimental value" (which I can identify with) or "You never know what you might need", which is near as dammit plain impractical. I'm sorry, but there are some things that you will never ever use again, even if you think of the most unlikely scenario in which that particular item plays a vital role, it's still probably going to have its job done by something newly-created. But I'll admit I am a sucker for sticking to certain useless things... when I find something I've had for mre years than I can count then I tend to hold a special bond with it, but can you honesly hold it with everything you own, so much so that you never want to part with anything? I don't know. I don't mean to derogate people who do have hording tendencies, but doing it to excess just seems impractical to me. [That doesn't include collections of things, by the way. Different kettle of fish.] Although... lack of junk or clutter can be just as disconcerting, especially if a family has kids. Some houses you'll walk into, and you'll think they're brand new. But whoever-it-is they might have lived there for donkey's years. But there's no clutter anywhere, save for the odd CD by the Hi-Fi or the umbrella by the door. Where's the stuff? Do people actually live here, or do you just direct visitors to this place while all your posessions are stashed away in some castle? It seems almost alien. And generally, places where kids play tend to get messy very very quickly. But if there's no mess, you start to wonder whether they're actally normal, happy kids. No toys, a sole computer... it's scary. Tidying up isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong. But to obsessionally clean night and day is far too much. What's the point in having a house if you're too afraid to put anything inside it in case it gets dirty? And besides, a little dirt is better for your immune system *nods* (If only I could downgrade the dust and things in my bedroom to being 'a little'...). I like going to places and seeing things cluttered onto work surfaces, or at least seeing little hints of mess around the place. It makes me feel more welcome and relaxed about my visit, like I've not had everyone rushing around desperately rearranging their well-placed (or not) personal items just for me; sometimes just to know that I'm not the only messy person around is nice enough.

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