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I've read the recent hoarder thread with interest, but don't want to hijack it so I'm starting a new thread with my story on how I embraced downsizing.
I have 650 square feet of living space. It was crammed to the gills with my "stuff"; books, and outdoor gear mostly. I had oversized furniture and so much clutter it was difficult to walk from room to room. My place looked like a second-rate library/REI warehouse.
I'm posting this in Psychology because it really forced me to ask myself some tough questions about what I really value. I had to get brutally honest with myself on why this stuff was so important, and why I didn't want to let it go.
I gave up cleaning because, "I live in my place, it's not an Artchitectural Digest piece, so I don't clean it."
Well, not cleaning showed. I had tags from things that were 5-6 years old on the floor. Receipts from the mid-90s. Paper all over the place, piles of it. Yeah, no one wanted to come over here either. There was simply no room for anyone. I kept buying more shelves to put things on as I crammed more stuff in here.
Then I heard about minimalists who swore that there was a freedom is getting rid of all the clutter that they accumulated. They said it was freedom. I've read things on simplicity before and thought, "Well, that's nice for some people, but I have too many hobbies. I need to store my hobby stuff."
Question right there. Why do I need so many hobbies? Does my life suck so much I have to drown it out with "hobbies"?
I've been clearing out things in my place since the beginning of the year. First I started with "low-hanging fruit", stuff I never used that was easy to get rid of. Then came things that had some attachment. I felt the resistance on not wanting to give it up. I asked myself the tough questions again. Things that represent memories, I still have those memories, they will never go away. The memories fade, I don't remember some details, but I still have the memories.
As my place started to look better, I kept looking for ways to downsize. "But I had this for almost 20 years!" "Yes, but is it adding value to my life now?" No, out it goes. The hobbies got downsized too. I can take pleasure in a walk at my local park, since the big multi-day treks in wilderness never materialized. There's nature all around us.
Stuff was like a thief. It stole my money, it stole my time, it stole my peace, and stole my serenity. I was the classic case of buying stuff I didn't need, with money I didn't have, to impress people I didn't like. I'm starting to reclaim all of those things. It is freedom. For days, I walked back and forth because it was so nice to walk from room to room and not stumbling over things.
My goal is not to only have "100 things", nor is it to have my condo look like a Carthusian monastery. My goal is clean, open, tidy space. Right now my living room has a bookcase, an end table, and a plain wooden rocking chair.
This got long, thanks for reading. Not trying to tell anyone how to live, but this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.
And guess who was the first one who came to respond!
With magazines that are more of current knowledge like Av Week, if I haven't read it in the year from the date on the cover, I rip off the cover, drop it in shredder, drop the magazine into recycling..........surprise, surprise.
As far as hobbies go, that depends on the kind of person you are. Personally, I am more like this: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
Depends on what you want to do. Me, I like my hobbies, it gets me out of the house.....but they are gear intensive. From scuba to belly dancing to Ren Fests......and I am thinking about taking up sky diving. And if not gear intensive, such as photography, then wall extensive.
I've read the recent hoarder thread with interest, but don't want to hijack it so I'm starting a new thread with my story on how I embraced downsizing.
I have 650 square feet of living space. It was crammed to the gills with my "stuff"; books, and outdoor gear mostly. I had oversized furniture and so much clutter it was difficult to walk from room to room. My place looked like a second-rate library/REI warehouse.
I'm posting this in Psychology because it really forced me to ask myself some tough questions about what I really value. I had to get brutally honest with myself on why this stuff was so important, and why I didn't want to let it go.
I gave up cleaning because, "I live in my place, it's not an Artchitectural Digest piece, so I don't clean it."
Well, not cleaning showed. I had tags from things that were 5-6 years old on the floor. Receipts from the mid-90s. Paper all over the place, piles of it. Yeah, no one wanted to come over here either. There was simply no room for anyone. I kept buying more shelves to put things on as I crammed more stuff in here.
Then I heard about minimalists who swore that there was a freedom is getting rid of all the clutter that they accumulated. They said it was freedom. I've read things on simplicity before and thought, "Well, that's nice for some people, but I have too many hobbies. I need to store my hobby stuff."
Question right there. Why do I need so many hobbies? Does my life suck so much I have to drown it out with "hobbies"?
I've been clearing out things in my place since the beginning of the year. First I started with "low-hanging fruit", stuff I never used that was easy to get rid of. Then came things that had some attachment. I felt the resistance on not wanting to give it up. I asked myself the tough questions again. Things that represent memories, I still have those memories, they will never go away. The memories fade, I don't remember some details, but I still have the memories.
As my place started to look better, I kept looking for ways to downsize. "But I had this for almost 20 years!" "Yes, but is it adding value to my life now?" No, out it goes. The hobbies got downsized too. I can take pleasure in a walk at my local park, since the big multi-day treks in wilderness never materialized. There's nature all around us.
Stuff was like a thief. It stole my money, it stole my time, it stole my peace, and stole my serenity. I was the classic case of buying stuff I didn't need, with money I didn't have, to impress people I didn't like. I'm starting to reclaim all of those things. It is freedom. For days, I walked back and forth because it was so nice to walk from room to room and not stumbling over things.
My goal is not to only have "100 things", nor is it to have my condo look like a Carthusian monastery. My goal is clean, open, tidy space. Right now my living room has a bookcase, an end table, and a plain wooden rocking chair.
This got long, thanks for reading. Not trying to tell anyone how to live, but this is my story, and I'm sticking to it.
It can be stressful. I have a problem with clothes. I find stuff at thrift stores and discount stores, and I'll pick it up on sight and concern myself with uses for it later. But nothing ever does get any wear, and something that should have worn out in months or years just accumulates, or I'll wear the same two or three things throughout the week.
It is easy to accumulate. I need to get to a place where I have two or three shoes, good shoes that can keep my feet dry in all seasons, and nothing else. Sometimes I pick up something I haven't worn in several months and it smells and I have to clean it because it has been stored too long or stored improperly. You would think that makes it easier (as a lot of those items I had to throw away), but then I pick up something else.
My problem stemmed from not having clothing that was good enough and not being able to afford it, and a desire to have something to dress well in, for every occasion. But you can never wear all of that stuff, styles change and some stuff just never sees any wear.
And guess who was the first one who came to respond!
With magazines that are more of current knowledge like Av Week, if I haven't read it in the year from the date on the cover, I rip off the cover, drop it in shredder, drop the magazine into recycling..........surprise, surprise.
As far as hobbies go, that depends on the kind of person you are. Personally, I am more like this: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!â€
Depends on what you want to do. Me, I like my hobbies, it gets me out of the house.....but they are gear intensive. From scuba to belly dancing to Ren Fests......and I am thinking about taking up sky diving. And if not gear intensive, such as photography, then wall extensive.
But it depends on how you want to live life.
What about other magazines, though? Magazines that are not "more of current knowledge like Av Week?" Do you keep them? How many do you have?
But back to the OP - I congratulate you on your new found freedom! So much of your post resonated with me.
With each move that I make, I get more and more "radical" about getting rid of stuff. (I move every four or five years generally.) But I also deep clean several times a year and chunk stuff, give it away, etc. I absolutely cannot stand the sheer WEIGHT of so much "junk." And at the end of the day, it's ALL junk.
We just moved and I was determined not to bring a single thing over here that we weren't going to actively use. And we actually moved to a house that was larger than our last one. I love the space, the light, the peaceful environment.
Tamara,
Yes, there are hobbies that are gear intensive. That's what I have to watch. I have my outdoor gear, but all of my hobby stuff is on two tall wire shelves. Re-enactors, yeah, I imagine that is a gear sucker. I knew someone into Civil War reenacting, and they had an entire trailer full of their stuff.
My bikes, they are the last thing to really look at. I'm losing the attachment to them. I will try to sell them and if I can't...I will take them to the dump and push them into the pit! And leave with an expensive, but important lesson learned.
I also look at full-time RVers. They literally have to get rid of 99% of their entire earthy belongings before they give up their house and hit the road. They swear they don't miss it or regret it.
Tamara,
Yes, there are hobbies that are gear intensive. That's what I have to watch. I have my outdoor gear, but all of my hobby stuff is on two tall wire shelves. Re-enactors, yeah, I imagine that is a gear sucker. I knew someone into Civil War reenacting, and they had an entire trailer full of their stuff.
My bikes, they are the last thing to really look at. I'm losing the attachment to them. I will try to sell them and if I can't...I will take them to the dump and push them into the pit! And leave with an expensive, but important lesson learned.
I also look at full-time RVers. They literally have to get rid of 99% of their entire earthy belongings before they give up their house and hit the road. They swear they don't miss it or regret it.
It's true, in the end, it's just stuff!
Well, at least let the recyclers have first pick at them before adding to the land fill.
My Huffy Cherokee I will probably eventually discard. When I got my aluminum KHS, I was thinking of keeping the steel Cherokee around, ride in once a week or so, to remind me of what it was like pushing that steel bike around, to have a spare bike around. But such never materialized and I guess that with over a decade on being on it, it is a pretty worn out bike. As I will eventually move to the ranch, it faces that question............is this something you want to move with?
And that answer is probably no. Just like the full and mid size computer towers, power units defunct, hard drives since pulled, not linked up to a cluster. Right now, they serve as support for the Windows 95 machine, so they serve that function but when it moves to the moving issue, their remaining useful parts will be pulled and to Goodwill they will go.
Renfests are a different thing, though. We spend so much time because it so much fun developing a character and we add and add and add accessories or at least buy. I have played the same character for years and yet, there are at least two, maybe three, perhaps 4 more items I need to be 'complete'. Buckskins, fur leg warmers, "real" leather footwear, and period hat. I tend to play only one character and only at Renfests, but I have friends who have many characters, who also do Dickens on the Strand (haven't made it to that yet, maybe this year), who are also into Cosplay and the like.....so they probably have very intense costume closets.
As far as RVers go, Mom could never see the sense in spending that kind of money for a place that was about the size of your living room (well, she said that about those you lived on sail boats, but it is about the same). She always thought if you were going to travel, use the money for the hotel rooms, let someone else clean up.
Once the "go minimal!" bug strikes, it is a wonderful thing. I had to do a rapid, major downsize when I sold my home. I liked living with less so much that I am still getting rid of things. I planned to buy new furniture when I got to my new place (why pay someone to move the old stuff?), but I have been here 5 years and still don't have a living room suite or a table and chairs. I bought a sofa sleeper for the spare bedroom and use that room as my den. The living room looks like an office since there is nothing there except my huge old teachers desk and lots of plants in the winter. I like it very much.
The clothes I like the best are the outfits I concoct to wear at home. These are mostly old favorites and I tear them up for cleaning and then eventually toss them when they are beyond making me happy. I have always liked pretty things. I probably have enough to last me as long as I will need them. I have a pair of pants and a tee that I wear to the grocery, taking a walk, etc. They go into the wash after an outing or two and I'm ready to go out into the world again. I'm sure I have made a lot of acquaintances because people recognize me instantly.
I do like to shop occasionally, and guess what?! I have much more money than I did when I had more things.
Six hundred fifty feet would be perfect for storing my Halloween things. There's five big new things on the table now. Help me I need an intervention. Oh and all the antiques that live every where in the house. Every square inch of prime real estate is taken. Nope, just can't think of down sizing to any thing less then two thousand square feet without having a major anxiety attack, but good for you IheartWA. I don't expect to live that way until I'm well into my 90's and need way less to take care of. Until then there's this talking witch I have my eye on being sold by Spirit. She'll be standing in my hallway crammed full of antiques soon.
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