Comments on: There’s a Fire! What Do You Take with You?

By: Tess The Bold Life

Tess The Bold Life — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:43:32 +0000

Hi Belinda,
My meds! I would run for my meds. LOL I take them for my ADHD and soooo many people thing people like me can do without them but not me…or I absolutely would and I’d have more money in my pocket as well!

By: Davina

Davina — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:04:41 +0000

An odd thought occurred to me when I read your questions. I pictured myself packing a bag with a few favourite books, a few pictures, and a journal… and walking out the door; leaving everything else behind and starting from a clean slate. I’ve become less materialistic as I get older. My experiences are more important than my “things”.

By: TheKitchenWitch

TheKitchenWitch — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:51:32 +0000

What a timely post. This week, a friend of mine lost everything in a fire. Well, everything but her family and her pet, which was of course, the most important thing. They got out with one credit card, which was luckily in her husband’s pocket.

Family members aside, I’d go for the photo albums, for sure. Practical things like wallet, etc. Otherwise, everything else is replaceable.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:51:31 +0000

I always love this exercise. You have expressed your thoughts very well. I love how you closed this article. I have gone down to almost zero possessions twice in my life. I have possessions that sit in boxes and rot in the attic and the cellar. If they were gone tomorrow I would not miss them. I am not really attached to anything material for while I enjoy “things” these things do not define me. I know that if it was all gone tomorrow that I would still be me, no less than I am today.
I would take with me all that is within me anything else would be something practical yet not necessary.

By: Kristen @ Motherese

Kristen @ Motherese — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:45:17 +0000

Ever since I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I’ve had a mental inventory of the things I would take with me if I had to flee my home. (Uplifting, I know.) My husband and sons top the list, of course, as do some of the essential survival items like a Swiss army knife. But I really like your reminder to take along existential things like hope. I suppose we would need these things as much as the others in a crisis.

(On a slightly unrelated note, I wonder if one might be able to do a major household purge asking herself a variation of the question in your title: if you lost it in a fire, would you buy it again? And if the answer is no: get rid of it! I’ll have to try this on my husband, a notorious pack rat.)

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:35:38 +0000

Belinda – wonderful, thought-provoking post as usual. I love how you make us think about important things that we should think about but often shelf in the back of our minds either from fear or from our inability to process these situations until we have to face them ourselves. I admit that I have not considered this particular scenario, but now that you mentioned it, your plan seems to be a solid one. I would just add my pets to the list you stated, and I will be able to face anything else that happens thereafter. Or so I hope.

By: BigLittleWolf

BigLittleWolf — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:59:12 +0000

The whole issue of “stuff” is one I’m dealing with a lot these days (thus a variety of posts on cleaning and organizing… though I’m getting nowhere). Too much stuff – even with sentimental value – and you start to suffocate. It’s hard when you’re the oldest generation left, and somehow the keeper of family mementos. And when kids are still around, there’s all their stuff, even when they head off to college.

I’d happily shed 50% if I could. Part of the challenge is how physical a task that is. It truly requires brawn – and the right mental space – to take it on, and succeed.

Great topic.

By: Tony Single

Tony Single — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:48:44 +0000

Belinda, I’m not the best person to be asking this! I don’t have a practical bone in my body, so I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to part with a single thing!

Back to basics, huh? Let’s see…

Well, Cass for sure. Then my DSi. Then a CD or two or… eighty. Erm… this is gonna be tough.

By: Giulietta

Giulietta — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:38:51 +0000

Hi Belinda,

Great wake-up call post for folks. We’ve been trained to put ourselves in debt to collect all this stuff instead of memories and adventures. Then you need to worry that someone will take/harm it. Why? To keep it looking new for the next owner?

My parents had a living room we couldn’t go in. All these decades later, the “stuff” in it still looks new. What were/are they saving it for?

Let’s see, I’d take my loving husband, my two kitty cats, my newest painting of horses on a carousel cut in close (It’s near the door for a quick getaway), my sense of humor, my resiliency, my sun glasses. my tattered address book I bought in Italy 18 years ago and my purse. (It’s got my library card in it. This will come in handy when I want to read or need a place to just hang out while we wait for the insurance claim to be processed.) Oh and my Mermaid Tevos so I can walk around my new neighborhood without sore feet.

Honestly, we should all live in treehouses!

Thx for the excellent post. Giulietta

By: Belinda Munoz

Belinda Munoz — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:39:32 +0000

Yes, I think you know a bit about my aversion to the idea of hoarding things. And yet it’s so easy to accumulate and be bogged down by them. I’ve been pretty good at doing a seasonal duming. If only I could get rid of some toys without the little guy noticing…