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Living without "stuff"
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| Project-K |
Is it possible?
Starting a few years ago, I started thinking about this more and more. First, it was mostly vague ideas. Then those ideas became increasingly concrete. Eventually I came to realize that owning things was a significant source of stress for me, and that ultimately, it made me unhappy.
I'm not just talking about having piles of junk and old boxes gathering dust in every corner of every room, but just owning things in general - even furniture and hardware. The stress came mostly from feeling bound to those things; needing a space to store them, having to maintain that space and protect it, wondering if I would ever come to need them if I threw them away, feeling a sense of economic responsibility due to having paid money for them, etc.
I recently started downsizing everything, throwing tons of stuff away, selling whatever I could, giving away the rest. It's been hard at times due to some pretty irrational emotional attachements I'd formed, but overall it feels incredibly satisfying and even liberating to some extent.
An ideal situation would be one where I could go about my life carring everything I own in my pants pockets. Of course, that's not realisticly attainable (unless I were filthy rich), so I aim to get as close to that as possible. I only have one pair of shoes, a few sets of clothes that I wear out quickly and then replace, a computer and miscellaneous things. I don't own a cellphone or a car. So far, everything I own (not counting furniture) could potentially be stored in a few carton boxes. I aim to reduce the ammount and size of those boxes as much as possible.
Short term goals:
-Finish filtering out those "miscelaneous" things. Old CDs, random objects, stuff I don't use.
-Focus on purchasing next to nothing other than consumable goods (food, toothpaste, meds, etc)
Mid-long term goals:
-Get rid of most of my furniture (save the bed of course, and for the moment my computer desk). Clothes can be stored in baskets - one for clean, one for dirty. My music collection can reside in a box that takes up less space.
-Eventually get rid of the desktop PC in favor of a more portable laptop (it's bound to become obsolete eventually, and when that happends, I'll just refrain from buying another desktop). This will probably be the biggest and most difficult step, but I've already been steering in that direction. I barely have any interest in video games anymore (mostly because they're all ), and most of my PC use has been reduced to browsing, text processing and listening to music (all things I can do just as well on a decent laptop).
So, what do you think - crazy? :nervous: :nervous: :nervous:
... or crazy cool! :cool: |
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| woscar99 |
| So, you're basically planning on becoming a bum :p |
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| Project-K |
| quote: | Originally posted by woscar99
So, you're basically planning on becoming a bum :p |
I prefer the term "nomad". :p |
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| kadomony |
| How Buddhist of you! |
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| StanVoid |
| that bedroom looks like a jail cell. yeah they don't give you much "stuff" to own in jail |
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| Jabberwocky |
Car keys would never get lost again :o |
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| Project-K |
| quote: | Originally posted by StanVoid
that bedroom looks like a jail cell. yeah they don't give you much "stuff" to own in jail |
Hey that's not a bad idea! |
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| chimera66 |
| since studying abroad and moving to a smaall east village apartment i learned how to deal without too much "stuff"...it is liberating actually |
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| PETRAN |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? |
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| Arbiter |
That kind of looks like my old house. I moved from a studio apt. to a 5 bedroom house and didn't buy much of anything new to take up all the space, so most rooms were empty or only had a couple of things in them.
I think it's an interesting concept. I don't know if I'd want to take it as far as you seem to want to, but moving seven times in four years has definitely taught me the value of not having a lot of belongings.
I actually don't own any furniture anymore either. Granted, that has more than a little to do with having moved into a furnished apartment. It's great that when I leave I won't have to worry about moving any of that stuff, though. Although I could really go for a better chair for my computer desk. :p |
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| Leon |
http://books.google.com/books?id=hE...num=1&ct=result
read that page and the one under it, pick n choose which one you like most :P, but the idea behind it is that the more we attach ourselves to, the more we have to oversee
that doesn't necessarily mean to cast everything off, but worry about what's important. not ipod peripherals (unless that's what you find important) |
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