Some things can only be fully understood when enumerated. It’s the easiest way to turn something vague and undefined into something specific and concrete.

You know that you have three junk drawers full of stuff but couldn’t say exactly what is in them. You know there are nine cardboard boxes from your last move in the upstairs closet, but you’ve forgotten exactly what they contain. You know that the basement is filled with things you rarely use, but that are too valuable to throw away, and that the seven totes of items from your mother’s estate are too painful to part with, even though you don’t want or need any of it. Taking a quick mental inventory of every drawer and closet in your house is easy enough, and most people have a fairly good sense of what they actually own⏤but chances are, you would vastly underestimate how much you really have unless you took the time to actually quantify it. 

It is often claimed that “ignorance is bliss,” but a completely different approach to life is expressed by the concept that “knowledge is power.” If you were a business, you would need to know exactly what items you had in inventory, which of these were necessary and fruitful to keep, and which should be discarded and written off. This is no less true for an individual than it is for a business. The next rainy weekend that comes your way, consider taking an inventory of everything you actually own, down to the last pen and torn sock. Doing so may sound tedious, but it’s an excellent exercise in understanding and evaluation. To take the time to quantify something is to decide you want to understand it. You can approach this in a super detailed way, recording every single thing you own (1 Rembrandt, 1 Picasso, 1 Dali), or you can approach it with a lighter touch, recording in general categories (3 oil paintings). Either method is fine⏤just get started, and make a commitment to open every box, drawer, and Russian nesting doll in your life.

Somewhere along the line came the bad idea that owning tons and tons of stuff was desirable, yet not a single other animal on this planet hoards possessions the way we do. It’s deeply countercultural to own just what you need. If you imagine that every single thing you own will eventually end up in a landfill or in a body of water, that’s a great mental trick for saying no to the next piece of plastic you are tempted to buy and bring home. The truth is, you don’t need to keep every gift someone gives you. You don’t need to keep every drawing or piece of macaroni art a child makes for you. You don’t need to keep mementos to keep a memory alive. You don’t need to own anything that doesn’t deserve a place in your own personal inventory. While that criteria is different for everybody, it’s worth giving deliberate thought to. The best way to begin is by the numbers. Quantify it!

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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