Have you ever sat down and made a list of all the shit you have? Does it amaze you? Does it blow your mind that you have that much shit? Does most of it sit un used in boxes or upon shelves or stacked up someplace? Do you own a large home but have a small family? DO you have a car for everyone in the house and even extras? Man I had a person about 2 years ago really make me see what it was I had and let me tell you this much. Trying to quit having so much stuff and wanting stuff is just as hard as any habit! It seems we are taught to compete with others who have stuff, that this stuff will define how others see us and if we dont have the right stuff in the right quanity we look less than we should in society. When I first tried to quit my consumer habit I would switch buying some items for others but still stuck in the habit, then it was sell stuff but that led to wanting to buy stuff becuase I had new money that was freed up so I bought more stuff. Then it was an issue to buy stuff to be more simple but still I was caught up with buying stuff. SO now Im still a junkie but the habit is stating to see the end and as I sell and give away stuff to other junkies Im starting to see the light but everyday is a struggle. The whole I need, but what if, and I might and so on is always a battle.
we don't have much shit that goes unused. i'm a big believer in giving it to charity if you haven't used it in 6 months. i HATE storing things and i DESPISE clutter. makes me fucking nuts. i do, however, have a tendency to hoard food: beans, rice, canned tomato paste, stuff like that. i can't help it, growing up like i did, then going through some really hard times these past few years made me the queen of pantries.
Imagining how I might go about living as I would have twenty years ago would certainly translate to an easier go of it. We're all junkies to a degree. Take the proverbial time machine back a couple decades and explain to someone then why we need our computers, internet, cable television, DVD player, game station...
I hope when I am done I have just the 1 computer, 1 TV DVD set up, I might keep the dvds and toss out the cable, 1 phone instead of the 3, strip the kitchen garb down, and just have the one house the 2 bedroom. I know people who live in small like 16x24 cabins and are happy, man I actually envy them for being able to do it. I would rather live a simple life becuase I know in later years there life is better than mine. They expect little and I seem to expect alot. I think the people who live more with less are far greater than those who live less with more you know? I am turning 40 soon maybe this is my old mid life crisis deal but currently it just seems to make more sense to me.
When I got my apartment after being more-or-less homeless for awhile, I was amazed at how much crap you "need" just to stay in one place. I've been in this place for almost a year now, and the stuff has multiplied like rabbits on viagra, even with bagging stuff up for the goodwill every 2-3 months. I've started getting rid of huge quantities of stuff soon - even if things don't work out with the community I've expressed interest in, I'll be moving anyway at the end of the summer. Ugh, I hate having all this junk.
See its pretty odd too, I mean I make great money for my area and its like there is this need to fill your house. So then you buy a bigger house becuase you ran out of room so you then can add more stuff and so on (sounds like an anti coke ad) So really other than something to sleep on, and with, clothes, food a chair to sit on and maybe some for a guest or two, a broom and dust pan, rags, cleaner, tv, dvd player, computer, stereo, some movies and cds what really else did I need? Instead I have this house full, a 10x12 shed full and another house too! My goal is no more of this cycle. My new place out on the property is not going to go this way no no no!
i think something that fills the house with clutter the fastest unfortunately is my kids. they want to save everything, and have too many toys. people think, oh the poor kids, they're going through a divorce, here have a toy! and now we have a ton of crap. my son is starting to understand he's going to have to let go of some of it; my daughter is a little young to grasp that, so sometimes I have to make those decisions for her. but it's a fine line between respecting their boundaries and teaching them good habits. we don't have the tv or dvds, thankfully. but i think i make up for it in cd's. oh and found objects for art, although that stuff is usually "transient": i bring it home only if i have an idea what to do with it, and turn it into sculpture, or throw it out if doesn't get fashioned into something in a couple of weeks. it seldom stays, unless it's a really great piece of metal or something.
My family and I have a lot of shit, yeah. Our garage and basement are both FILLED with crap... A lot of it is interesting to look through, though... A lot of that stuff is from when my parents were kids and teenagers, so I think it's pretty neat. But yeah, we buy way too much shit.
