Well, it finally happened: I ordered a PS2. Of all the things I’ve gotten rid of over the years, the PS2 is one of very, very few things I have regretted getting rid of. Downsizing the collection of video games wasn’t bad in itself, but I ultimately blocked myself from ever playing certain games normally again. I got around this by installing an emulator on my computer, but I don’t think refurbished business laptops were designed to handle heavy graphical processing. It was a lag fest at times. For some time now I’ve considered just buying a PS2 again, and finally pulled the trigger.
First of all, wow. I can’t believe people don’t take better care of their consoles. I mean, the PS2 is old now, I understand a lot of things can happen over 20 years, but I couldn’t believe the condition of some of the units being sold. Finally I found one that appeared to be pristine, being sold by somebody who appeared to be selling off their old possessions, which gave me more confidence it wasn’t some shit unit circulated through the ranks of resellers and refurbishers. The real selling point for me, though, was that it included a storage case that perfectly fits the PS2 and its cables and accessories, making it extremely easy to store if I don’t want to leave it lying around (the sad, current fate of my PS3).
And this got me thinking: I recently went through a bunch of old photographs I had from when I was growing up, back before digital cameras became the norm. I scanned them using my bad-ass compact scanner and conscripted most of the physical copies to the trash. I also got rid of some old birthday and Christmas cards, for a significant reduction of items in my box of sentimental and family stuff.
But then I thought…doesn’t buying this PS2, which will now be my 4th console (ugh!), completely eradicate the advantages of getting rid of those pictures and miscellaneous papers?
And honestly…no, I don’t think so.
The risk of having lots of little things is that combing through them becomes a massive mental barrier: people just don’t go through boxes of little things. Those boxes become virtually ETERNAL, and then they find company with other boxes of little things. So when you make your way through a box of little stuff, it actually represents a significant accomplishment. You aren’t saving yourself a great deal of space, but you are waging a serious war on your possessions and clutter.
For example, I have my all-season tires sitting in giant tire bags in the basement. They take up a decent amount of space. However, I imagine what it would be like to have a bin full of old toys, papers, nic-naks, etc, which consumes the equivalent amount of space. Are they equal? Or is one worst than the other?
In my opinion, the bin is far worse than the tires.
I think that the psychological burden possessions have on us is directly proportional to the amount of effort required to assess their utility and discard them as necessary.
Large, whole objects are actually relatively easy to discard, notwithstanding the physical effort required to move them, whereas I wouldn’t recommend people throw their papers out en masse without evaluating their contents, since you don’t want to throw something legitimately sentimental out, and you don’t want to accidentally throw important legal or tax documents out, either. But a mangy old set of tires? Well, that’s pretty easy. [Not that those tires are mangy, but they may only have one more season left in them]. It doesn’t mean you have to throw the large items out, it just means that when the times comes, it’s a heck of a lot easier.
Of course, if space is at a premium, it helps to limit the size of things, but there’s something to be said for having much less in the first place, such that your larger and more useful items constitute the bulk of your possessions anyway.