What I want to know, is how do you convice people that yes, you really do want books for Christmas? Perhaps a movie thrown in for variety, but mostly you just want books. Any kind of books: Mysteries, Fantasies, Novels, Histories, Comparative Theology, Science Books, Cookbooks–just books. No more Stuff.

This comes up because I am cleaning the house, which desperately needed done, and I am also going through looking for stuff to donate to Christian Help, or barring that, throw away, and I began to wonder how I ended up with so much Stuff.

You know, Stuff. It’s not useful per se, it’s just something someone thought was neat and thought that you would like.

Not that I don’t like my Stuff, mind you. Much of my Stuff is very nice, and I like looking at it. But it’s just Stuff. It takes up space. In fact is often takes up valuable space where books could go. This is not a good thing, because in the battle between books and Stuff, Stuff loses every time. (Unless I don’t like the book, or it’s extra-special stuff, like the collection of elephants given my over the years by the Christmas Elephant and Birthday Elephant.)

Why does Stuff lose? Becuase we have a Very Small House. You know, the typical 40s and 50s house with small closets (if there are closets at all), tiny bedrooms, small living room, small kitchen, and damp basement. With books in every single room, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for Stuff, yet it seems like every time I turn around, we have more Stuff.

So what do you do with the Stuff? If it has a use, I give it to Christian Help, but so much of it is just plain Stuff, cluttering up shelves, cluttering up the floor, taking up space. No use, just pretty. Or neat. Too nice to throw away, but too much trouble to have a yard sale.

Maybe I’ll give all my Stuff to my sister-in-law and she can sell it on E-Bay, after all, it is Nice Stuff.