How much stuff is too much?

How much stuff do two people really need?  This weekend during the great storage closet remodel and mini-mud room creation, I was faced with that question numerous times.  When the project was complete and it was finally time to move all our boxes and bins back into the closet, I realized that we are literally overflowing with "stuff."

My husband and I are only two people.  We have a four bedroom house and each closet in our house, even the newly remodeled one, are filled to more or less max capacity.  How is this possible?  How can two people need that many items?

The truth is we absolutely don't need that many things, and while we did make quite the haul to Good Will in an effort to create more space, that doesn't change the fact that a lot got left behind.  A lot of "stuff."  We have certainly accumulated a staggering number of possessions since we moved into our first apartment together, a 2-bedroom 1-bathroom summertime sauna apartment with a measly two closets and a living room window that didn't open.  I'd say we have definitely upgraded, and our stockpile has absolutely multiplied. 

I'm not even sure how it happens, this stockpiling of things and random items that you store away and forget about for years on end.  I'm sure we're not the only ones faced with this dilemma.  And I'm sure at some point down the road we'll do another overhaul and get rid of more and more things, only to replace them with seemingly newer and better things.  This seems to be the process, doesn't it?  The sad part is I've always considered myself to be a minimalist, but looking at my closets this past weekend painted an entirely different story.

So in the back of my mind, I'm going to think very carefully from now on before I store something away in the closet.  It's time to start being proactive, and honest, in assessing which items should be kept and which should find a home somewhere else.  On the bright side, our storage closet looks amazing and our new mini-mud room is simply lovely.  And for the time being, all the "stuff" is more or less in order.