Monday, April 7, 2014

Stuff

I was at the mall yesterday.  I needed just one thing.  It's a huge, high-end mall with everything you can imagine.  Even though it's only ten minutes away I rarely go there.  I felt like I was going to hyperventilate.  So much stuff that no one really needs.  I couldn't wait to get out of there.

This year I am going to start to "decontent."  That means get rid of stuff.  I have so much stuff I never use and should dispose of.  I stop myself from buying more (usually).  But every Christmas and birthday I am gifted more of it.  I hate clutter.  I tell friends I want to condense my life to four boxes.  Not sure if I can really do that, but it sounds good in theory.

There's really not a lot of things I want.  If I buy something, it's usually after weeks (or sometimes months) of consideration.  Plenty of time to talk myself out of the purchase.  Often it's just a replacement of something -- so no "net acquisition" of stuff.

The one thing I do want is a new house.  The themes will be modern and minimalist.  I want to keep it simple and smaller.  I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet as I may be moving in the next year or two.  Why put so much effort into creating my dream house only to sell it in a year?  I need the right location.  A high end metroburb is where I want to be.  Compromise between city and suburbs, and walkable neighborhood.

2 comments:

  1. Not surprisingly, we have the same tastes.

    After dealing with 20+ years of my wife's clutter I relish the idea of having only the essentials...in a place no bigger than it needs to be...located in a neighborhood that's highly walkable. Gotta have a car though, with designated parking. No big city isolation for me.

    I can't wait to see where you end up. I'm already envious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel exactly the same as you do when I go into a mall, RB, and I usually wait weeks, like you, to make a decision about a purchase. I do have one weakness--buying books. However, I've made a conscious decision to stop buying books; they've got to come from the library now.

    I have termed getting rid of stuff I don't need any longer "de-acquisition." I'm in the de-acquisitive stage of my life.

    I'm going to retire in four years and one month, and I have to move from my house. I'm going to need to get rid of a lot of stuff I've accumulated over the last 26 years. I'd better get started now or I'll be paralyzed and overwhelmed if I wait until the end.

    Two years ago, my mother-in-law needed to move from her house and into an assisted care facility. My wife and I went to clean out her house and my wife wanted to save a lot of her mother's things. Frankly, her mother was a bit of a pack-rat who loved to buy junky nick-knacks that I would have discarded, but now we have one room completely filled with her mother's junk--and we'll have to go through that stuff in addition to our own before we move.

    ReplyDelete