My goal is to ETA: LIVE LIFE HAVE FUN DO WHAT I LOVE AND REDUCE THE CHAOS OF EVERYTHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF THAT! I'LL post the reductions made in order to simplify my life. This includes all aspects of my life. I will share the steps of the journey, the trials, errors and successes. I hope to inspire others and keep myself accountable. I am also passionately creative, this seems at odds with simplicity at times, but makes me happy! Find the Happy Balance.
I really, really want to pare down the house. Would love to live in a minimalist house- at least my fantasy-self thinks she would. I wonder, from past experience, would I sabotage? Would the space I see in magazines and have at hotels leave me feeling empty. In the past I have filled it back up - with different stuff. At least it was newer stuff that I can say better suited my current self, but what of all of the stuff that has finally been displaced?
Here is where I am trying to go with this post, really. I see the blogs and videos of decluttering, where so much is thrown in the trash. I understand that you should not donate or give away trash. But so often that is not the case, rather it is just the easiest, quickest answer. I know some people have truly hoarded actual trash, and there is no place for that but the skip. For many it is not trash, we just keep to much 'good' stuff. Perfectly good, usable stuff. That is the reason we kept it right?!
When we finally see the light, while it may be easiest to throw it in a landfill, where those resources are lost for eons perhaps. I feel it is my penance for collecting it in the first place to find it a proper home, where it can actually be used! While I don't need 50 towels, someone else may have actual need for some of towels I am no longer housing. And even if those towels are shabby, they can be used by an animal shelter!
Be Responsible, allow for the reuse of things you no longer need. Not only will you directly help those who receive your discarded items, but the entire planet (really, I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true!!!) will benefit from your generosity. Remember, if it is not worth selling but still in good condition, donate it. I just keep a bag hanging just inside the door in the garage, so I can quickly grab an item as I find them and toss them in as I go.
So I was browsing my posts this morning, and had a thought about my Making Space! post. I realized that the project was started due to the utensil drawer being jam packed, yet I only removed the one slider press from the drawer. I have admit, that did the trick. I have been able to use the drawer without an real issues, it now shuts.
It occurs to me in reflection, a definite bonus of keeping this blog, that the drawer could stand a good going-through. As I sit thinking of it though, I am telling myself that everything else belongs there. And that I do use it all...sort of. Even the cork screw, there is a story there.
Corkscrew
We have disposed of at least 3 cork screws in our married life. We would be doing a clean-out and be on a roll, then we come across the corkscrew and say "oh, that can be donated!" Then a month down the road, someone would bring a bottle of wine to dinner, or we would come up with some other utilitarian use for a corkscrew. Now, life has always provided a means, and we have been able to procure a new corkscrew. There was no need to feel regret over the decision to let go of it. Yet, I feel like buying the new corkscrew is wasteful, and inconvenient.
It is this sort of situation that leaves one feeling like we should just hold onto anything that is useful, as we may need it one day. Balancing seems to be the answer. We need to balance the amount of things that we keep with the amount of space we have. Karen Kingston states in one of her books that we need to believe that life will provide what we need...yet there are many starving people in our world...so maybe these are just really words said, not believed--for valid reason! Of course this is all the more reason to know that we do not need all the 'stuff', and to consider our real needs.
In balancing it is necessary to consider the priority of the space we have and the items we choose to keep. If you won so many things that you cannot find them when you need them...Then you are wasting the space, and your time looking, perhaps keeping them from going to a home where they will be used rather than that other person creating demand for another item from 'overseas', and in the end how many times have you replaced the item, just to then add it to the storage where the duplicate is already lost?
Coming back to the question at hand, the corkscrew.
After
PRIORITY OF SPACE the corkscrew is in the utensil drawer, prime real estate, for items that should be used everday--or at least weakly, at worst once a month. The corkscrew fits none of those. I think we have used it 2 times in the 6 years we have lived here. And there are other things that we do use that belong here. Having more space in the drawer would make access to used items much easier.
PRIORITY OF ITEM: it is used, but very infrequently. If I were moving overseas I would not bring it, or even think of it.
IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?: While i have needed it, is there something else I could use, or even a duplicate? Actually, while writing I have come up with the perfect solution. We have a jackknife somewhere that has a corkscrew. The plan is to write the task of finding the knife down, and not worry about it. When I come across the knife, we will find it an appropriate home and donate our LAST corkscrew!
duplicates
And now that I have worked this through I believe that I will be able to apply it to other items that cross my path, at least I hope so :) And maybe that jackknife (when i find it) will stand in for at least a few other things too!
Donations
I have now made a difference in the drawer although the picture does it no justice. Look how you can actually see the bottom of the drawer! Some utensils I had duplicates for. Isn't the mouse grater fun, I kept hem, but the smaller hand held grater and the turn-handle grater both left. I kept the large hole grater, as we use it most often. I love the idea of the hand-crank beaters, but they are so hard to use the kids really cannot do it, and neither can I. Since i have the electric mixer, there is no need to keep an unused utensil for idealism! This reminds me, i have an electric hand-mixer under the counter that i never use...
Is it not interesting? We need to refuse refuse!! That is we need to Just Say No to worthless items!
If we don't accept things that we don't need, that add no 'worth' and are hence 'worthless', to our lives and our homes we simplify our lives. We save our money and keep our houses cleaner.
I think that the only confusing part of this concept is the term 'worthless.'
How are we going to define worthless. Here in lies the trap! Watch a hoarding show like this one on You tube, A Hoarding Documentary
Just watch the first bit of documentary and you will quickly understand on the far end of the spectrum how everything can seemingly have worth to certain people. The on of the first items discussed by one hoarder is a pair of "perfectly good trousers. the only problem is this one tear..." He and his wife disagree, she would throw them away, as they are useless. He argues they have worth, just sew up the tear and they could be worn again many times.
I agree they could have been worn! If they had been patched and worn that would have been wonderful! keep them out of landfill, reduce resources used to produce and transport new pants, and saves some money! But once they have been replaced, and then squirreled off some place to take up space, they no longer have that value. They are worthless, and worse more resources are being used to house that item!
I know, we hate land-filling....but....perhaps we could all buy cotton and wool and compost worn out clothes. Recall that even 100 years ago natural fiber were made into clothes, and when too worn for wearing quilts would be made from the remnants! Check out the quilt my son recently made from his outgrown shirts that could not be passed on, and some salvaged material from the 70's. We opted for a meaningful keepsake, with many uses instead of investing many hours into another disposable project for his latest book report.
Now you can see by the documentary gentleman's house that he has applied his 'worth' theory to many, many, many items, and they have filled his home. So perhaps if we can teach ourselves more definitive theory of 'worth,'
we could find balance in order to simplify our lives. For me something has worth only if I am going to use it, if it is currently serving a purpose in my life. The most obvious use is utilitarian--something i use frequently in some way. Other purposes could be happiness, but here again the waters get murky. Many will claim the stuff makes them 'happy' of course that is another long post! For me, if seeing an item makes me happy, and that is it, I don't actually use it, then I take a picture and gleefully let go! I know that picture is there for me should i wish to enjoy it, and now get to have my space too!
Here is where I am trying to go with this post, really. I see the blogs and videos of decluttering, where so much is thrown in the trash. I understand that you should not donate or give away trash. But so often that is not the case, rather it is just the easiest, quickest answer. I know some people have truly hoarded actual trash, and there is no place for that but the skip. For many it is not trash, we just keep to much 'good' stuff. Perfectly good, usable stuff. That is the reason we kept it right?!
