Yes, this is part of the minimalist thing. Have to admit, this is a fairly recent interest of mine and something that needs a bit more study. It does have a certain appeal or maybe I should say a growing appeal.
I am far from a shopaholic and not really a clothes horse. I don’t fit in with the stereotype of a woman owning a lot of shoes. I might own 20 pair but wear maybe 5 pair on a regular basis. Books are a different story; I have a weakness for books. Thank goodness for the public library or I’d be in the poorhouse.
Anyway, I was really thinking about the “stuff” we accumulate over the weekend. You know, stuff. I moved here in 2001 and there are still boxes in the garage that were never unpacked. At least one box has old textbooks from longer ago than I care to admit. Text books? Why did I drag those here to begin with?
A few weeks ago there was an editorial of sorts in the newspaper about how people now park their junk in the garage and their cars in the driveway. Look around your neighborhood – how true is this? And there is now a thriving industry selling space. Self storage facilities are popping up everywhere. We have so much junk we have to pay someone else to store it.
Some of this stuff might have sentimental value of some sort. We have memories attached to it and believe if we throw away the physical object the memory will also be thrown away. Other things we think we might “need” some day. Or we think someone ELSE might need it. That was what my mom’s second husband thought as he collected all sorts of worthless junk.
But all this stuff creates work. We have to move it or clean around it or maintain it or fix it. How much time and money is sunk into just taking care of the “stuff”?
My house is rather modest but I am single and have managed to fill a three bedroom two car garage house with stuff. I have a lawn to take care of with a now non working lawnmower. Something else that needs to be fixed in order to spend more time taking care of a lawn.
Sigh….there are a lot of times I think there is a lot to be said for living in a shoe. lol Ok, not literally, but maybe an apartment or a small condo. We live in ever bigger houses so we have room for more stuff.
Our possessions are taking over our lives. We are becoming slaves to stuff.
OMG, I could write a book about evil stuff in my life. I’ve moved three times since 2008 and I got rid of a lot of stuff each time. Still have too much. I have things that I have not used in years. I saw a show about unusual homes last night. There was one that was 7’x16′. It had a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and a living area with a desk. The owner said that he only had room for the items that added a great deal of quality to his life. I do not know much about minimalism but I want to downsize, simplify, and mobilize. I am looking at acquiring roughly 350-400 sq ft of living space on wheels. I plan for that to be my home for several years, maybe the rest of my life.
When you shop at Ikea, they have these tiny “sample” small homes. Used to think they were crazy and now I see their charm. Just because you have a small space, though, doesn’t mean you embrace minimalism (as far as I can tell). It’s about more than just having less stuff though that is a big part of it. You hit the nail on the head about simplifying your life. It’s kinda weird how this idea is really becoming a real interest of mine
I was a slave to stuff before I moved a few years back. I cleaned out a lot of it out when I moved… but I recently looked around and discovered I had too much stuff again! I don’t know where it all comes from but it is time to reduce the pile of stuff!
I agree! I think part of my agenda this fall when it cools off is to go through the “stuff” and either throw it away or donate to a charity of some sort. It’s just cluttering up space.
When I moved to Boston last summer, I completely downsized my life and possessions. It started out of necessity (huge house to small house), but it was also a great opportunity to figure out what my kids and I really needed. We have found that we have more time to have fun and do things instead of cleaning things or trying to find stuff in boxes. Best feeling in the world 🙂
There ya go, exactly. When I lived in PA, I had a basement which is a great place to collect junk. Most of the junk was thrown away before moving here. Lack of a basement has forced me to limit the amount of stuff but it still accumulates in the garage. I get tired of tripping over stuff. 🙂