Minimalist Lifestyle

When I think of this title – minimalist – I don’t match it with me. I’ve had lots of stuff surrounding me most of my life. I strove to buy stuff I really didn’t need, but somehow it made me feel better, about me! I suspect this is not a unique happenstance. The American economic model is one of consumption, buying, tossing, replacing, and doing so in a madcap swirling dervish tempo. Buy! Buy! Buy! New and improved! Now on Sale! Don’t miss out on these prices!

Such is the routine ad. On TV, radio, in print and now everywhere on social media.

Americans are urged to buy just for the sake of buying. Needs are not required. Is it no wonder, then, that our homes are cluttered with unneeded and unused items?

With age we need less living space. The kids are out on their own with homes of their own, and kids, too. So, three bedrooms were not needed. We moved to a two bedroom apartment. We attempted to downsize our stuff. Did well but still hung on to too much. Each of our rooms is crammed. And paperwork, reading materials and a host of other detritus accumulates seemingly from nowhere.

The bookcases are full, and not entirely with books! Windowsills make handy stash spots, too. So do unused chair seats. Even vacant areas of the floor are used to stack piles of documents and mail.

You get the picture. We are long overdue for a purge of unneeded stuff.

So we begin. Today we will write the sales copy for Craigslist. Hoping to swap unused things for some cash. Will vet the piles of paperwork on the floor next to the computer and trash most of it hopefully. Will clean off the tops of three chairs now being used as filing cabinets. Kitchen bar-top counter will be next. Mail unsorted but at least read will be assessed for need for filing. Or the trash! The top of the book cases will follow for tossing. Then we will prepare a list of hidey-hos to be considered for clearing out.

Closets are another spot of congestion – clothes that haven’t been worn in years due to weight gain or loss, and just plain loss of interest. Heave-ho, I say. The front closet/store room is another target for clearing. Down the building’s hall is our storage unit and that is stacked to the ceiling. Another good target for minimizing.

The debris of life collects most often because we are hesitant to make a decision: to toss or not. In all my life I have never wondered where a file or document is when needed. It simply isn’t needed for saving. Almost all such documents are not needed. But save them we do. And not in a fashion to be located if we do actually need them 18 months from now.

The inability to decide is the real issue, I think. We don’t need three flashlights with dead batteries in them. We don’t need an extra power drill, nor a third putty knife. In fact I don’t need any of those items anymore. Years ago I did; not now living in an apartment and contemplating yet another downsizing. It is the right time now to make some big adjustments in the stuff we have kept at hand. Nearly four years after the move we know what we don’t need.

The goal is set: by Thanksgiving day we will have removed a visible amount of stuff from each of our spaces – rooms, closets and cabinets. I can envision it already! Free at last, free at last, God Almighty we’ll be free at last!

Keep your fingers crossed. We’ll need the vibes!

November 7, 2017