Not so much sand and fog as it is kipple and entropy

In some works of fiction and probably also in real life, some people like to give their houses names. I've decided that the most appropriate for me currently is the name House of Kipple and Entropy. (Don't know what kipple is? Read Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".)

Entropy and kipple are something that I fight in pretty much all aspects of my life, but they seem to be winning the battle in the house. Kipple just seems to appear and multiply and invite their other kipple friends over for a party and then just never leave. And then more kipple is delivered every day, most usually in the form of junkmail that I could just throw away as it comes into the house, but for some reason, I instead decide that I'm too tired/don't feel like dealing with it, so I just leave it there and it hangs out and makes friends with the other kipple already living in the house, and then they make little kipple babies who run off and find other friends.

And then to top it off, I'm probably responsible for bringing more kipple in the house. (Does it still count as kipple if I actively go out and seek it for the purpose of bringing it back? Is there another word that better describes it?) I don't shop as much as some do, but I do my fair share.

As I was telling a co-worker today, I inherited the pack rat gene from my mother, but unfortunately, the gene has mutated in me, so whereas my mother pack rats inexpensive and useless things that aren't that hard to get rid of, I pack rat much more expensive things that have the double effect of being things that I can't/don't want to get rid of *and* costing me way more money.

I think part of the problem is that I have a hard time tossing things that are still useful. It's wasteful. *Someone* might find it useful and/or might want something like this, and maybe they just can't find it or can't afford it, and it would be so much better for them to have it than for it to take up more space at a trash dump. But since I have no way of finding them, I apparently decide that they will somehow, someday, magically find me, so I'm storing the stuff for them in the meantime.

I also have things that others have given me that I really have no use for. They might be nice things, but they don't fit into my life. If I'm given something, I feel obligated to keep it, no matter what. Maybe I'll start trying to impose a deadline. I keep things for X amount of time, after which, I toss them or find someone who wants them. Or store them for those people until they get around to finding me and the item they would like... :|

Of course, I know I'm guilty of giving other people things they might not want/have no use for as well, thereby adding to the kipple population of their residence. I'll see if I can learn to curb that particular impulse during the holidays this year. And no, it doesn't apply to the kipple I've already bought for them that I'm saving as Christmas/birthday presents...

Hi, my name is Cindy, and I'm a kippleholic.