Have less stuff (or at least try)
This list is inspired by the following list by @wyip
1. Many people probably don't need as many clothes as they have
Joshua Becker talks about wearing a uniform which for him is a black t-shirt and then just pants or shorts. Oddly, I have a brother who seems to only wear black t-shirts. Wearing some sort of uniform is common it seems. My uniform is usually some sort of quirky, sports-related t-shirt or a hoodie and conversion (hiking) pants. I don't need suits or dress shirts or polo shirts. I have a couple of each but that's it. My suits are 20 years old but I've worn them so infrequently and they still fit so there's a bunch of money not spent. Picture from 2015 (I was the bear on Fitbit).
2. Shoes
Shoes are tricky. At some age, you figure out not to cheap out on your feet. That doesn't mean you need dozens of shoes though. I have two pair of fire boots, two pairs of duty shoes for fire related activities (medical calls, meetings), two pair of hiking shoes and a pair of running shoes for working out. I also have a ratty pair of hiking shoes I keep in my pickup in case something comes up. I have one pair of dress shoes that I probably don't wear even once a year.
3. Coats and hats
I have too many.
4. Kitchen stuff
We're pretty good about getting rid of things like old pots and pans and not having 50 plates. People have a lot of kitchen stuff. We have a robust collection of Deneen Pottery coffee mugs however from various places we visit. We don't need more than a couple of mugs each but there we are.
5. You can never have too many tools
An adequate tool selection is about self-sufficiency which is higher on my priority list than decluttering.
6. Do you collect anything?
I have a collection of baseball cards, all in it's probably not even 1000 of them. About 20 years ago we collected quite a few pieces of Department 56 Snow Village (pictured below). It was fun to do and put them out at Christmas but for some reason we don't put them out anymore. We have two big storage bins full of them, I'd like to sell them but wife wants to keep them for now.
7. Overwhelmed?
If the crap you have doesn't overwhelm you then you probably don't have too much, that's one theory. Does that make sense to you? I'm 50/50 on it. A better test that I wouldn't wish on anyone is what would you take in an evacuation? We had to evacuate our house in April due to the Crooks Fire, a large wildand fire that threatened our community. I didn't actually leave but we did pack stuff up and my wife left with the dogs. It took me 10 minutes to pack up my collection of baseball cards. It would have been less but a lot of them are displayed like you see in the picture. I think being able to pack up in a few minutes is a good indicator you don't have too much.
8. Do you know where everything is?
If you have a lot of stuff but can find whatever you're looking for right away, you probably don't have too much. I just read an article about this. Does that one resonate with you? It mostly does with me if the person saying it is being honest with themselves.
9. Priorities
I guess my priorities are having what we need without living in squalor (our only "mess" is dog toys strewn about) and without going broke. There's an art form to knowing also what you can and cannot cheap out on.
Maybe stuff becomes less of a problem once you figure out your priorities.
No comments.