What does Thoreau mean by: "Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them." -Walden: Economy, 1854

Thoreau believed, and said, that people do not own possessions,
the possessions own them. He means that when people own things, they become so concerned about
protecting and maintaining those things, that the people no longer focus on what Thoreau
perceived to be the more important aspects of existence. For example, a homeowner locks up his
house to ward off theives and even go to the expense of installing alarms or other devices. This
costs the homeowner more money. The homeowner may even worry about the possibility of a break-in,
thus causing the owner to lose sleep, or appetite, or simply lose the time to ponder on more
pleasant thoughts or on thoughts that might help mankind exist in a better world. The financial
and emotional distractions of ownership pull a person away from what a person might be able to do
without the burden of ownership. Thoreau suggested that the more a person has, the more the
person works to keep and protect what he has, rather than allowing the person to ponder on other
matters. This idea is behind Thoreau's "Simplify, simplify." He believed that if people only
owned and used what they needed to exist, rather than owning and using what they want to be more
comfortable or to be more highly placed in social perception, then people would be generally
happier and there would be far less crime and less animosity among
people.