Why do we collect junk?

We all keep more stuff than we need. I have not worn half the clothes in my closet for more than five years, but I just cannot seem to bring myself to get rid of my old stuff.

I once interviewed a man who told me he owned seven cars and that he kept them all parked in his front yard. I asked if all of the cars would run. He said no, only one ran and it was the one he drove to the interview.

When I asked him why he kept six cars at his house that would not start, he thought about it a moment and said: “Well, I have them because I have them. That’s all.”

Obviously, neither of us knew why he kept the junk cars, but it was clear to me that for him they were a source of pride. He was not the least bit concerned that his collection of junk autos was doing severe damage to his property value and his neighbors’ property value.

After more than 40 years I have not forgotten that interview. And I still can’t understand why we find such comfort in junk.

There is a house within a block of ours where the owner could not get into or out of his front door if his life depended on it. His home is located in the middle of a very nice upscale subdivision of manicured lawns and beautiful flowers. But overgrown weeds, vines, bushes and trees completely cover the front of his place. In the side and backyard he has a huge collection of rusty compressors that have been sitting there for a dozen years that I know of. He could not possibly take a walk in his yard because there is rusty junk piled five or six feet high on just about every square inch of it.

Two blocks in the other direction is the home of a lady physician who inherited a horribly overgrown house from her mom with rain gutters that hung down and flapped in the breeze. She moved in after her aged mother passed away and cleaned up and painted the place inside and out. The neighbors were delighted. Unfortunately, four years later the house actually looks worse than it did when the doctor’s mother was alive. Her old dead van sits in the back yard with four flat tires while her shiny new van is parked in the driveway.

Of course these folks would tell you that the condition of their property is their business and nobody else’s business, but that is just not true. When we keep up our property we help our neighbor’s property values. When we don’t take care of our place our neighbors’ property values take it on the chin.

So now the City of Central has started a Mayor’s Court to try and enforce city ordinances that are designed to stop people from decorating their home place with junk autos and other assorted trash. The city also wants to encourage folks to keep their places clean so they will not attract rats and other hazardous disease-carrying vermin. Fines for violating these city ordinances run as high as $500.

It really is a good idea to try and do something to make people clean up, but it will not be easy. There are some who will fight to the death to defend their right to trash their place. It does not make sense, but that is just the way it is.

It will be interesting to see if Mayor Watts’ initiative does any good. Let’s hope it does. But I sure hope nobody looks in my closet, because I can’t afford a $500 fine. Maybe I could hide my old clothes in the attic where nobody could see them?