If you were to move, how many boxes would your possessions fill?

This was the question I asked myself last week after helping a friend pack to move to the mainland. A single gal, she reduced the contents of her one-bedroom apartment to nine boxes and three suitcases.

Imagining myself having to move, I surveyed my home and, in horror, I realized that nine boxes wouldn't even contain the contents of one closet!

This brought me back to my oft-asked question, “;How much stuff does a man need?”; For me, the classic short story “;How Much Land Does a Man Need?”; by Leo Tolstoy helps to answer that question.

Tolstoy writes of Pahom, a peasant who feels that he does not have enough land. So he purchases more land and is able to live a more comfortable life. But greed enters the picture and he moves to a larger area of land.

He is content for a while, but discontent again enters the picture. He sells his land and moves with his family to a new settlement. Now he has three times as much land as before and is 10 times better off than he had been. At first he is pleased with it all, but when he gets used to it, he begins to think that he still does not have enough land.

A passing dealer tells him about a far-away land. Leaving his wife to look after the homestead, Pahom travels there and meets the Chief, who tells him that the land is sold by the day. “;As much land as you can go round on your feet in a day is yours, and the price is one thousand rubles a day. But if you don't return on the same day to the spot whence you started, your money is lost,”; says the Chief.

Thinking he can get the deal of a lifetime, Pahom starts at daybreak, walking the land and marking his property by making mounds of dirt with his spade. As he walks, he covets more and more desirable land, which takes him farther and farther from the starting point.

Exhausted from the heat and with legs beginning to fail, he sees the sun sinking lower and lower. He has to return by sunset or the money will be forfeited. Panicked, he frantically runs back and just as the sun sets, he reaches the starting point. But his legs give way and he falls forward, dead.

His servant then picks up the spade and digs a grave long enough for Pahom to be buried in—6 feet from his head to his feet—that is all the land he needed!

To me it seems that we, like Pahom, may be content with what we have for a while, but discontent and the desire for new and more things soon creep in.

Thankfully, our quest to acquire more and more possessions may not kill us, but having too much can and does take a toll on our physical and mental energy.

How much stuff does a man need? How much stuff do you need?

Unlike Pahom, let's focus on enjoying what we have rather than striving to possess more and more.

See you in two weeks!