My complicated relationship with stuff

re: My complicated relationship with stuff

HeatherLeigh — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:58:10 GMT

Oh wow...just 100? I have to admit that I have already made a deal with myself that the books and the clothing (well the fashion including shoes and handbags) are coming with me. At this point I still feel that they are too central to who I am. I will purge them but what I still want, I am going to keep.

But everything else is getting some serious thought. And everything that I question getting rid of is going into a storage unit. And will be revisited. I should take pictures of some of this crap. I am so organized but still...it's all the "just in case" crap. It's driving me nuts.

Thanks for that link. I am definitely going to follow his progress. At the very least, it will inspire some of my "do I really need that?" thinking.

re: My complicated relationship with stuff

mtimdog — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:41:34 GMT

I keep meaning to start the 100 Things Challenge myself, and it sounds like you're in a similar rut. I'm fixing up my house to sell currently and dread lugging all those plastic bins of "junk" from our basement that haven't even been opened in years. I want to break away from it all and start fresh, but can't get my head around the idea of giving it away. I would adore the option of selling it, but like I said...."junk".

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html

--Tim

re: My complicated relationship with stuff

HeatherLeigh — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:25:52 GMT

Stephen,

Wow....thanks for posting that. I may have to repost the poem. I hope you don't mind.

I'm looking around my house at all the things that I can totally live without. Why do I need 3 phones when I can only talk on one at a time? Why do I need the DVDs that have remained unwrapped for 4 years? Un-used guest bedroom....why?

I just contacted some contractors for estimates for my bathroom remodel. I'm thinking I may need to take some baby steps: rent out my house, get a storage unit, start looking at smaller places in Seattle. Change is in the air. I'm feeling brave.

Thanks for sharing your story.

re: My complicated relationship with stuff

Stephen Bárczay Sloan — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:47:54 GMT

Wow, Heather.

Parallel lives.

We've just moved away from all our big stuff. We, like you, felt the need to create space for good new things to happen.

Well, not things, exactly, but possibilities. All our wonderful, wonderful stuff just started to feel like an anchor.

So, we fixed up our house in a most amazing place (see it here: http://www.bainbridgebarn.com/ )and moved to what most consider a most oppressive place (Sacramento) because we decided to listen to that still small voice that whispers about possibilities.

Several years ago a great friend sent me this:

When your ship, long moored in harbor,

gives you the illusion of being a house...

put out to sea!

Save your boat's journeying soul,

and your own pilgrim soul,

cost what it may.

-- Brazilian Archbishop Camoro

Onward...