You have way too much crap.

That's the lede of an amusingly perceptive (and personally resonant) article by Mark Morford in Friday's San Francisco Chronicle entitled Why Do You Have So Much Junk?

Throw stuff out. It is one of the healthiest things you can do. Honest psychologists and good spiritual healers often advise patients with overactive minds and squirrel-like attention spans and problems focusing and problems sleeping, they will tell them not to pop some Ritalin or merely take an herbal tincture and eat more leafy greens, but to go home right now and, yes, clean out your closets. Clear out your clutter. Strip it all to the beautiful essentials and then keep it that way.

Dump the stuff you're hiding from, that you've been uselessly protecting, that you've been scared to let go because it makes you feel safe and connected and more clearly defined as a human when, in fact, it's doing the exact opposite. I do not care how cheesy it sounds. I do not care if you scoff and whimper and cling to your pile of old newspapers like Paris Hilton clings to her perturbed little sneer. You gotta make space. For breath, for thought, for perspective, for health. It is the easiest and cheapest therapy you will ever enjoy. Do it now.

Anyway, I'm taking the advice to heart, and threw out four full trashbags this weekend, and dropped off another one to Goodwill. More crap will be going up on ebay soon.