That’s all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff.

—George Carlin

That piece by Carlin (site warning: he uses offensive language) has always made me laugh hysterically, probably because it’s true.

Now is the season of battening the hatches and tucking in around the edges. It’s the advent of the time when many people spend their days indoors for months. Although I live in the south (where our indoor season is summer), every fall I feel the urge to clear space in my home. Lately that’s what I’ve been doing — simplifying, organizing, streamlining. I’ve been donating most of it to Goodwill. It’s amazing how much stuff one can accumulate, and how this expands with the size of usable space.

Take some time to assess your surroundings. Are there clothes you haven’t worn in years? Projects collecting dust on a shelf? Papers piled everywhere? Prepare your space for the hibernating months. Your stuff is not you. Make room for yourself.