"STUFF" & DEMETRIA'S OFFICE

BY DAN MILLER
(posted August 19, 2004)

Are we losing the battle against "stuff"? I fear, as a society, we're running out of storage space.
Of course, it's great for those commercial storage facilities that are popping up everywhere.
Nowadays, they'll even bring the storage rooms to your house, where you can pile all of your stuff inside, and it's taken away to be stored for you, so your heirs can deal with it later.

You'd think, in a paperless information age, with computers and email, and electronic tax returns, there wouldn't be so much paper. But I'm fairly certain there's more than ever.

Even museums are having a problem with too much stuff.
I'm told they often have to make decisions on whether to keep stuff, dispose of it, or somehow get it into the hands of private collectors.

If you're like me, your attic, basement, garage, closets, even offices at work offer dramatic evidence that there's too much stuff around.

Of course, keep in mind the never failing old truth -- the minute you throw something out, that's precisely the time you'll need it.
For example, there was a tiny little piece of paper next to my home computer that had been there for weeks, if not months. It had a couple of words scribbled on it. It sat there week after week... so I finally shredded it!
Within thirty minutes, as if an alarm went off, my wife Karen walked in asking about that tiny little piece of paper.
I can't recall whether I 'fessed up or not.

All of this is leading up to a picture of Demetria Kalodimos's office here at the station, which may or may not be related to the topic at hand. Judge for yourself.