UA, I think I would reach a point where I said "enough". It would just be well outside of normal. Right now my "stuff" problem (my personal stuff problem, not my social/family stuff problem) is lack of space - either appropriate storage space or the ability to use the space I have. Dh likes his space to be full of air. (We've had this conversation - me: "but you aren't using this half of the shelf." Him: "I'm using it to store air. You like to be surrounded by things, I like to be surrounded by air.")

for example, dh doesn't mind if I put one doll and two pillows on the guest bed when we do not have a guest. I would prefer 5 pillows of different sizes, three dolls, and a quilt folded at the foot with a stuffed animal on it. Then I would sit cross legged in the middle with papers and books and magazines spread around me and write lesson plans. Also I would need colored pencils. And index cards, and paper clips, and some examples, and I would need to be able to see all of these things. And I would need to leave them there when I left and not have anybody clean them up so that I could pick up my train of thought where I left off when I came back - a day, or a week, or a month, or six months later.

you know Sherlock Holmes' "mind palace"? I build mine around me.

Right now I am choosing to sit not at the nice clean dining table on the nice clean porch, but in the middle of the unmade bed in the messiest room of the house, surrounded by baskets of laundry. It feels cozy.