The title of this post is a lyric from Modest Mouse’s song “Spitting Venom,” from their album “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.”
I think about this lyric quite a bit whenever I’m doing chores at home. It is just an on going, never ending battle. It’s one of those quiet things that I feel like no one ever talked about when I was growing up, and even now, as adults, while I hear the stupid phrase “adulting” a lot, I feel like I don’t here people talk about how such a motionless activity (to borrow another phrase from the song) doing chores really is.
Lately, I’ve had this desire to really go through the stuff in my home, and get rid of what’s broken, or unused. Some of it I still have an unhealthy attachment to, for no reason. Some of it, I have truly forgotten about.
I’ve been slowly going through what I can, and getting rid of odds and ends. Do I really need a plastic walrus that I bought for my desk at a job I had in 2013, and has been shoved inside a tote under my home desk ever since I quit that job?
Yet, as soon as I let things go, it seems like I’m getting more in it’s place. In the past 2 weeks, I’ve acquired a small shelf, a free weight bench and weights, a sleeping bag, a wire rack, and a motorcycle – all for free. Granted, the motorcycle is temporary, as I offered to sell it for a friend who moved to Texas. Yet, it still feels like I’m stuck in place as I try to cast off things I own, that I don’t use.
It reminds me of the quote from Fight Club “The things you own end up owning you.”
I’ll continue to try and declutter, and not let more things in. Until then: Do Crime. (Victimless, non-violent.)