Just found out the average American household has 300,000 items and I'm sitting here counting my 47 mismatched Tupperware lids

I was scrolling through a random stat site while waiting for my shift to start and saw that number, now I'm legit tempted to walk around my apartment with a clicker just to see if I'm above or below average, has anyone else ever actually counted their stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

torres.thea1mo ago

It's wild how we fill our spaces without noticing, like we're just collecting stuff to pave over the quiet parts of life.

violaramirez1mo ago

Walked into my kitchen last week and realized I own three spatulas, two of which are practically identical, and I have no idea how that happened. It's like they just multiplied in the drawer while I wasn't paying attention, you know? @torres.thea this reminds me of how my grandma used to say we're all just "filling holes in our souls with stuff from the store," which sounds harsh but honestly she wasn't wrong. I keep buying fancy notebooks even though I write everything on my phone now, just because the empty pages feel like potential energy or something.

parker_palmer441mo ago

@violaramirez nailed it with that "filling holes in our souls" thing. My grandma used to say something similar about how we buy things to cover up the empty spots in our lives. I've got like four pairs of workout shorts I never wear because I keep thinking "this time I'll actually hit the gym" but nope, they just sit in my drawer judging me. The 300,000 items stat is wild but it makes sense when you think about all the little impulse buys and "maybe I'll need this someday" stuff we hoard. I read somewhere that we only use like 20% of what we own on a regular basis, the rest is just emotional clutter. Its weird how much peace comes from actually getting rid of stuff though, like you're clearing out more than just physical things.