Image by itchys via FlickrEach time I see that bumper sticker I remind myself that I will have to do that someday, and I would like that "some"day to be sooner rather than later. Of course, in order to "live simply" I need to eliminate many different "things" such as magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, a couple of houses, a few of the cars that I own and perhaps even some investments. The paperwork and the manpower and the brainpower needed to sustain all of these things is overwhelming. I don't even have enough time to read all of the magazine subscriptions and newspapers that come into my home.
Unfortunately, I have a spouse who likes to "hold on to things". He's not quite a hoarder but rather a "collector". The problem is that in doing so the cause and effect syndrome is STRESS and more STRESS! Furthermore, while keeping the junk along with the valuables, it is more time consuming to weed out the trash from the important things.... let alone the issue of storage. My latest strategy is throwing out things that are exclusively mine.. therefore I am not trespassing. Hopefully when my family sees a sense of order and calm come over me, they may want to emulate it themselves...AAHH, HA ,HA ,HA!
Although leaving little bits of my past in some garbage dump is a painful thought, I do try to donate things that others may find useful... trying to expand that directive of living simply to "Live simply so that others may simply live". We do have so, so much to be thankful for.
If my plan to live to 100 is realized, that gives me another 40+ years to use all the junk I've accumulated. The problem is, it'd take me 40+ years just to SIFT THROUGH all the boxes of junk, let alone actually use the stuff that's in 'em! My unsolicited advice would be if you have to think twice about keeping something, get rid of it! The things we need and that have sentimental value are readily available, so we probably wouldn't have to look for them. Of course, the day I need a piece of the junk stuff, I will have thrown it away the previous week!
ReplyDeleteThey say that the only reason we "need" something after we've just thrown it out is because we just realized that we still had it. There are so many things that we don't even know that we have... that is until we find it and throw it out.
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