Living simply isn’t simple. You can quote me on that if you’d like.
I’m not saying that living simple is difficult because you wish to have more “stuff” than you need, it is the fact that if you don’t pay constant attention to things, “stuff” creeps up on you.
Take for instance some old reference books I have laying around. In front of me I have Beginning PHP 4, and the Javascript Bible 3rd Edition. Neither of which I’ve bothered to open for years. Both of which are out dated. Both of which hold little more value than kindling for the next fire (if I even had a fire place). And both are taking up space in my apartment.
These aren’t the big space wasters in our apartment though. Winter clothes, jackets, air conditioners (in the Winter especially), half-full freezers, shelves of extra bathroom products, golf clubs that could use to see some grass, old computer equipment, bins full of cables and wires, and hundreds of DVDs are just a few things that are taking up space in our apartment almost needlessly. Granted, some of these things are time specific necessities, but like I said – if you do not keep a critical eye on your things they can get out of hand.
Why live simply? Eliza and I enjoy the freedom of living simply. Less bills, more fun we always say. We’ve done fairly well so far too. We both have our hobbies and interests, and so we have things to quench those thirsts, but overall we’re not the type of people to try to get involved in “everything”. Some people, and we know a few, try to do everything everyone else does. Not only is that expensive and a waste of time, it’s boring. Get your own interests, do your own things, and be yourself. Much funner that way. Yeah, I said funner.
Anyway, back on topic. Eliza and I have been chatting about chucking some things, cleaning up the rooms and going through each thing to weigh its value to space ratio and giving it to the garbage men if need be. Can you tell it is spring? Again, we don’t have a lot of stuff, but we don’t have a lot of room either. And, we both think it is time to be out with the old, and in with the new.
For instance, we’ve been wanting to make our own wine for a very long time. This spring we’re taking a trip to the Finger Lakes again, so we’ll be able to stock up when we are there, but we still want to have some space to make our own batch or two of wine. To do this, we must make room. To make room, things must go.
I think we’ll start tonight, with the kitchen. Not necessarily to get rid of things, but more to take stock of what we actually have and perhaps move things around a little to fit better. As we buy things, like new pots and pans, our organization sometimes goes a little haywire. Time to rethink that.
Do you find yourself having too much “stuff”? Do you purge?
Note: Some have been having problems leaving comments. Not sure why, but I reuploaded the worpdress commenting script, even though I think it was an issue with the server. If you are having trouble commenting, please contact me and let me know.
[tags]life, organization, cleaning[/tags]
Hey Colin, nice post. I have been thinking about pitching stuff on my desk, clean up my bookshelves, and especially clean my hard drive. I seem to collect junk. I guess the pack-rat style is passed down in my family. If I plan to have a loft in NY or CA, I will need to learn to pitch and not store.
We do a yearly purge. By we I mean my wife and I…if we asked our children to purge a toy they would die. So we take care of that stuff when they are not at home or outside. Donate to a charity and it is a good tax write off. If you are in the kitchen start in the dreaded junk drawer. You will be amazed at how mant pounds of junk is in there.
I can’t wait to start chucking stuff. Especially all your excess clothing that appears to be taking up some much needed closet space!
We’ll have to start tonight! (Wednesday)
That purging post hits the nail for me, as I’m in the process of purging my roommate’s crap. We’re close to moving to another city, and her being female, a natural packrat, I have to sort through what’s to keep and what to donate to charity. Needless to say, it’ll take a week of work to sort it all out.
I learned early on that finding time to clear out things that weren’t
important or just junk is very very helpful.
Due to my parents loving the idea of moving, after a few moves, I gave
up on keeping alot of personal stuff. When I went off to college for a
bit, I had three bags of clothes, a backpack with stuff, a filebox
filled to the top with cds, and the laptop bag.
My parents have so much junk, mainly my mom – she likes to keep
everything. My dad has his desktop FILLEd with icons. You can’t see
the wallpaper, that’s how bad it is. They don’t understand the
concept of ‘de-cluttering as you go’.
Anyway – it’s good that your living to simplify
My purges are totally sporadic. It usually happens at the weirdest times and I’ll go on a rampage. It’s tough for me to toss stuff that I’ve bought because I think that I’m losing the value of it. What I’m realizing now is that I’ve gotten the value out of it, now it’s time for someone else to do the same or just get rid of it.
My wife is really good at “de-cluttering as you go,” but I tend to let stuff stack up and then tear it all down two or three times a year. Drives her mad.
Tom Kim: Wives are better at everything, aren’t they?