The Neverending Story of Downsizing

Years ago, I began writing about my downsizing efforts and it took quite a while, as well as one major move.

This morning, I scanned and boxed books I don't need anymore. These books are being bought for a  pittance by a company called momox here in Germany.  I typed in the ISBN number online and the amount they offered me popped up (or didn’t). If they made an offer, it was around 15 cents for the book. Some travel guides got over a euro, which surprised me.

I still have pangs when selling my books, although I read them last years ago.  After repeating my mantra “I am more than my books”, it was easier to part with them and appreciate them for informing and entertaining me during a past phase of my life.  Mama put up more of a fight because she actually felt that she was throwing her life away, in the form of her books.

So it’s great that I am not really decluttering anymore, my flat is just on an occasional diet!  By accessing my life at the moment and ridding my apartment of the things I don’t need or want anymore, it is not overwhelming.  There is no way I’m going to schlep all these books and things I don’t use when I move again!

What it comes down to is self-honesty.  Yeah, so I didn’t actually read this or use that.  As Mama always said, “Get down off the cross, we need the wood”!  I’m losing the Teflon pans and unhealthy foods.  I'm using my acrylic paints even though I'd like to stock up on oils.  My CD’s are still staring accusingly at me.  Maybe my students want some of them? (Somehow the mothers are never so enthusiastic as their kids when I do a CD, book or stuff dump on their kids…)

My NEVERENDING STORY  plods on…

Less Stuff, Less Space, More Life

While watching a documentary about the happy Danish people, I observed their tendency to have small homes, very open and light and very few things to clutter the pristine environment.

There are three important “rules” for reaching this lightness at home:

1) keep things that you love and/or really need and get rid of the stuff that’s lying around, blocking the view.

2) decide where you want to keep everything.  EVERYTHING has a designated home.

3) ALWAYS, ALWAYS put the things back where they belong.

Tiny Houses are very trendy but also the tendency to live in huge homes.  I have a rather large apartment but appreciate my efforts to keep it simple, uncluttered and free.  It wasn’t always like that but my goal has been to un-complicate my living environment.  It turns out that this striving is not a goal but a mindset.

If you are not really committed to living a light and airy life in an uncluttered home, nothing really works in the long run.  You don’t have to do this.  It’s your choice.

Even now, I have twangs of nostalgia and, well, fear when thinning out my work materials.  Since I am older, I don’t need all the papers I once needed for seminars.  Actually, to go with the paperless idea, I shouldn’t be drowning in paper anyway.  Besides, it’s rare a seminar participant reads the stuff I've painstakingly prepared!

I feel pangs of Angst because tossing my unused work materials equals not having anything motivating to do. It's not necessarily the truth but some sort of crazy story I've made up in my mind.   I’m not a great one for retirement.  There is a reason for living and, for me, it’s not cruising social media or watching TV.  Being realistic, however, means getting rid of things that I won’t use again and building up a new and fascinating future.

It all begins with a vision.

Before decluttering, it is important to know where you are headed.  Ideally, how would you love to live?  How would your space look?  What would you feel while being in it?  What is your ideal lifestyle?  Close your eyes and imagine.  Write down everything your vision embodies or even prepare a collage or drawing.

Then, look at what you’ve got now.  How close are you to living your ideal lifestyle?

Take pictures of your living space.  Then, take one room at a time and look at everything.  Clarify what needs to be done.  What objects do you love, use often and enjoy.  What is just ballast?  Chuck the things that block your way toward your ideal lifestyle.

It’s not (just) about neatness now.  All the cheap plastic containers holding stuff you never use or even look are like a Damocles sword hanging over your head.  Eventually, you’ve got these containers in every nook and cranny of your living quarters, garage, attic, shed.  Some even have stuff in storage.

After the visionary step, you need to begin discarding.  Sort out what goes and what you love/use and will receive a designated home later.  Focus all your attention on this, room for room or by categories like clothes, books, photos, papers, hobby materials, recreational items, etc.  You might leave sentimental items for the last great committing feat.

Don’t feel like a failure if you don’t manage on the first try.  Recover, recall your vision of an ideal life, and jump in again!

 I'm rooting for you.

Hyperconsumerism

Hyperconsumerism, hyper-consumerism, hyperconsumption or hyper-consumption refer to the consumption of goods for non-functional purposes^[1] and the associated significant pressure to consume those goods exerted by the modern, capitalist society, as those goods shape one's identity.^[2][3] Frenchy Lunning defines it curtly as "a consumerism for the sake of consuming."^[4]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the characteristics of hyperconsumerism is the constant pursuit of novelty, encouraging consumers to buy new and discard the old, like with clothes and trendy articles.  Most often, the items haven’t been used all that much so they are “stored”, who knows why.  Perhaps because “we paid good money for that and it’s hardly been used”.

Often things are bought simply as status symbols, to “keep up with the Joneses”.  But mostly we buy because it makes us feel good.  Unfortunately, hedonistic adaptation soon sets in and the pleasure we felt at the beginning wears off. So we’re off to buy something new.

But even if it’s not new, lots of us are buying-bound.  Think about the stuff sold at thrift stores and flea markets.  What about the excitement during auctions at storage facilities? People buy the junk inside the units unseen.

And don’t get me started about clothes addiction.

„The marketing strategy of the fast-fashion industry is to encourage the shortest of short-term decision making by encouraging impulse buying in two ways. First, items are priced high enough to maximize profit margins but low enough so people do not hesitate to make purchases because of price; second, merchants introduce and remove stuff so fast that customers worry that the item they are thinking of buying won’t be available the next day. As fashion seasons give way to incessant “innovation,” conspicuous consumption becomes constant consumption.“ Mark C. Taylor, Excerpted from "Speed Limits: Where Time Went and Why We Have So Little Left"

In an article entitled “Britain’s Bulging Closet: Growth of ‘Fast Fashion’ -  Women Are Buying HALF Their Body Weight in Clothes Each Year,” Paul Sims reports that the average woman in England has twenty-two garments hanging in her closet that she has never worn and will spend on average $201,000 on clothing during her lifetime.

Every time I see this film, I want to run and clear out some stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhSNsBs2Y0

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxJVbzdf5gI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pb-hjqdjbY

If we would buy 90% less of the stuff that clutters our garages and rooms, we would belong to the wealthy. As it is, we store our lost wealth on shelves and floors, and in closets and storage facilities.

Yet there is a spark of hope on the horizon.

A recent study by Young and Rubicam, which tracks 750,000 consumers in 50 countries every year for 17 years, identified the biggest shift in consumer attitudes that they have ever seen – one they believe is here to stay. In the US, they see Americans "returning to bedrock American virtues – thrift, faith, creativity, hard work, community and more – in order to build new lives of purpose and connection". Consumers are beginning to reject "cheap and more" as they search for a better balance in their lives.

Set yourself free.  It’s just STUFF.