Back about 10 years ago, I was the model American citizen, I was all consumer and adding to the whole world system of BUY BUY BUY and Bigger is better all the time.
We had a lovely 3,000 square foot home… (which did not include the 1,000 sq feet of high ceiling basement, or the huge garage space…) and a big yard and a yard guy and a cleaning lady and just tons of stuff.
At some point it all hit me and I started to downsize.
I sold off over $3,000 worth of STUFF on ebay alone. Just stuff. Books, junk, knickknacks, electronics, cds, just all kinds of stuff. It was stunning.
And then my marriage failed… and I lost the house and I was forced to liquidate even more and stop the spending…. (I just didn’t have much money or time to take care of all the stuff) and then finally I moved to the Moby and that is where I am now.
But I’ve noticed… it’s starting to creep back in again. I noticed three or four boxes stashed under my tv table in the living room and a few boxes under my desk and at the foot of my bed and stuff stashed here and there… It’s BACK!!!! AGH!!!!!
I watched this SUPER cool video online… I really want you to go and watch it. It will really make you go Hmmmmmm…
Its’ really a very fascinating video and you need to watch the WHOLE thing… it’s really important to understand some of why stuff is SO cheap at Walmart and other big box places. She really nails it on the head. I’ve often wondered… how can a say, small appliance cost only $10 when you can’t even get lunch for 2 at McDonalds for that price… I mean the appliance has technology and engineering in it, research and development, material costs, shipping, distribution, etc etc., and yet it’s less than a meal for 2 at a fast food joint? It’s all to KEEP US CONSUMING… that’s our job. As Americans… our job is to consume. That’s it. Most of us don’t create anything. We don’t craft or create anything that we depend on day to day. We just consume. We are 5% of the world’s population, however we consume over 30% of the world manufacturing and export. We are the reason they have child labor issues in the far east and deforestation in the Congo and just about all the nasty things going on in the middle east. We’re a pretty big contributor to all that. Yeah, lovely.
And then I have stumbled AGAIN over this cool idea… the 100 Thing Challenge. Can you pare down the stuff you have and keep it under 100 things? Can you? Most of us can’t. It would be almost impossible.
I know I probably can’t either.
But I want to keep that in mind and start to really examine the STUFF in my life and start to get it more manageable again. So I’m encouraging you all to take a good look at your stuff too… I’ll be documenting some of my discoveries and efforts here, now and then…. not enough to get boring, but just updates on how it’s going.
I set out two big boxes in my living room. One is trash. One is Goodwill. And I plan to fill them up in the next week. And when they are filled and gotten rid of… (hopefully recycled!) I will begin again.
Most of us don’t have like a week of free time to just take and de-junk and de-clutter and all that. But I find with a lot of things that seem daunting… it’s every day, daily effort on a much smaller scale that reall seems to get it done. Might take a month… maybe two… but it’s better than just ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
We’ll see…. I’m game to try and start working on it.
Are you?
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I have a pile of CDs to get rid off and a few DVDs. I purged my ‘library’ two years ago so it’s pretty much update but might go through it again. I need to look at my junk drawers as well and get rid of somethings somethings. I need to purge my fabric collection as well. It’s mostly flannel that I used to make small pet hammocks with until my ratties died I year ago. I think I have a project for tomorrow!
Yes. Absolutely ready. I love your blog, by the way.