Simplify, simplify. ~ Thoreau

DamselFly · 03-21-2011, 05:13 PM

when i moved, i left behind most of my "stuff". the only things i brought w/me are some clothes, my teapots, my Taoist/Buddhist books (even though i can't read them at this time), and my altar. having little stuff gives a sense of freedom...as Lao-Tzu said,
to have little is to possess.
to have much is be perplexed.
a good blog to go to for writings on minimalism is zenhabits. i have it on my igoogle page. once at the end of every season, i do a "housecleaning" and donate the clothes i haven't worn that season. i figure if summer has gone by and i haven't worn something, i probably won't wear it next summer and don't need it. my objective is to get a week's worth of clothing for each season. that's it. always feminine, of course.
DamselFly

Kelt · 08-17-2012, 06:18 PM

This little article landed in my inbox today, and I thought this might be a good place for it. I consider myself to be a moderate minimalist but this made me realize that I still need to organize...hmm..or not, a couple of areas in my home.

Organizing is often well-planned hoarding

http://theminimalists.com/about/

We need to start thinking of organizing as a dirty word. It is, in fact, a sneaky little profanity—a pernicious little booger—who keeps us from simplifying our lives.

Our televisions would have us believe that there’s a battle being fought on the consumption continuum, a battle between the organizers and the hoarders. And from our couches it’s hard to see who’s winning.

We’d like to posit to you, however, that these two sides are working together, colluding to achieve the same thing: the accumulation of more stuff. One side—the hoarders—does so overtly, leaving everything out in the open, making them easy targets to sneer at. But the other side—the sneaky organizers—are more covert, more systematic, more devious when it comes to the accumulation of stuff. Ultimately, though, organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding.

Sure, both sides go about their hoarding differently, but the end result is not appreciably different. Whether our homes are strewn with wall-to-wall material possessions or we have a complex ordinal item-dispersal system, color-coded and alphabetized, we’re still not dealing with the real problem.

No matter how organized we are, we must continue to care for the stuff we organize, cleaning and sorting our methodically structured belongings. When we get rid of the superfluous stuff, however, we can focus on life’s more important aspects. Said another way: We can spend the day focusing on our health, on our relationships, on pursuing what we’re passionate about. Or we could, of course, reorganize our basement again.

Once the excess stuff is out of the way, staying organized is much easier anyway.

socialjustice_fsu · 08-17-2012, 07:59 PM

Thank you for the link and the synopsis of the article. I have been perplexed from time to time about this 'opposing' shift of view. Personally, I tend to lean more toward having what I need with a dash of objects that fill my senses, my wants. Following a move from a large home to a two bedroom apartment I took note at how much lighter I felt. My energy was not tempered down with stuff. Albeit, I had to take a long, skeptical look at the objects that stayed with me. I was taken aback by the amount of stuff I produced for a huge (successful) estate sale prior to my move. It was then I felt as if I was an organized hoarder. In the past I could spend hours upon days sorting, filing, and packing in just the right decorative box that, yes, I had spent a number of hours shopping for...only to discover there were some major issues I had going on in my life that I simply could ignore by diving into the perpetual move of organizing a box, drawer, closet. Now that I have been in my apartment a couple of years with much less stuff and a lot more chi I feel lighter, not so burdened with the organizing and the upkeep of such a system. I have also discovered that life really does pass one by rather they overtly or covertly hoard. Call it what you will...but I know now that when I jump into that "I need to revise, re-do, reorganize mode" - I just might need to take a look at what I am avoiding and find a healthy means to cope with it.

cinnamongrrl · 08-18-2012, 04:00 PM

Let me start by saying I do prefer organization...i strive for it. With teenagers...its not always feasible. One thing i HAVE learned... its SO important to have a place for things. Whenever I'm shopping at thrift stores, I always look for baskets, containers and totes. If i cant find an immediate need for it then my girls typically do.

We are getting ready to move, so it's a perfect time to declutter our lives. I went through my closet and have gotten rid of things that dont fit, I dont like or wear etc. I went through papers and whatnot and recycled a whole lot of stuff that way too.

In closing.....I can see where y'all are coming from...but theres no way Im getting rid of my books! :P

Kelt · 11-01-2012, 03:37 PM

Digital clutter

Digital clutter is one of the last "clearing out" areas I have to deal with. Also one of the most insidious. It's one of those out of sight out of mind things for me. It's still kind of crazy making though. I can't really even figure out how bad it has gotten. Especially with all of the cloud storage available for free. With auto save set up, I know where it goes to live, can search to find whatever I want, and it's all safe and sound even it the house burns down.

Even so, it feels like I have a Fibber McGee closet somewhere and one day it will crash down and bury me.

The joy of digital photography. Now, without the cost of film or developing I am free to take as many shots as I want. I can try different angles, lighting and focal distances to my hearts content.

The downside of digital photography; see above.

My photo 'organizing' software has a really handy way of grouping things by date and time so that like items tend to stay together. You can then go further and make specific types of albums and things, use keywords, rate them, map them, all kinds of interesting things when you get around to it. Until then, they are clumped in time chunks.

Well, about a year or two ago I started noticing that when I would go to look for a specific picture it would take a while to find it, but eventually I would. I figured I would get around to organizing them 'someday'. But, the whole out of sight, out of mind thing was working on me. Well, I'm putting my foot down and going to start on this. Of course it has taken a couple of days to bone up on how to best do this for the best outcome, and how best to use the tools at hand, batch sorting, that kind of thing. Sharpen the saw before cutting down the tree.

The irrefutable conclusion I have come to is that in one way or another this will involve individual attention to each separate photo in some way. Either delete (a lot of them), move, re-catagorize, name, etc. So, okay, open up the big fake box in the sky and look.

Seven years worth. Slightly over 9,000 images.

See you in about a year.

Then I can start on documents, email archives………….

chakra · 11-01-2012, 04:28 PM

Great Thread!!

I feel as though I am in an ongoing process of decluttering. I am perpetually finding things to take to the Salvation Army and to the shelter here in town. I have consciously ensure for every one thing I bring into my house, three things must leave. Despite that, I still own a lot.

I was laying in bed last night thinking of what my kids would want when I die. I think in those terms now. I was in a serious car accident that has made me completely re-evaluate EVERYTHING. I don't want to own anything. I no longer feel attached to life. Not in a "I am going to kill myself" way, not at all. But, when I came home from the hospital and looked around my house I wondered why on earth I own so much useless crap. And how did I ever attach any value to any of that 'junk'. So, the painful process of decluttering my life began.

I gave away my camera. If I can't remember it, who cares.
I gave away my cookbooks. If I can't make it, I can look it up on line.
I gave away my all my fiction books. I want to live here, now, not escape it.
I gave away all the clothes I had not worn in six months (except my super warm coat cause -40 and colder is not uncommon where I live)
I gave away all my china.
And the list goes on. I feel lighter when things leave my house.

What is important. That is the question I ask myself, truly ask myself, every day now.

Life is a blessing. My monetary holdovers, not so much.

Greco · 11-02-2012, 08:00 AM

Well, I am down to the most essential...my wife's kitchen things, my books, and things I use for creative "work"...all "things" I enjoy, love, find beautiful.

To say that life is a gift doesn't come close for me, and I am grateful beyond words to live with simplicity, economy, beauty (essential for me)...moving once again soon...and will keep it minimal, spacious, uncluttered, comfortable.

Greco

03-21-2011, 05:13 PM	#1
DamselFly Member How Do You Identify?: QueerStoneFemme Preferred Pronoun?: Ma'am or Damsel Relationship Status: single Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: hovering here and there Posts: 259 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,053 Thanked 771 Times in 199 Posts Rep Power: 396593	greatly simplified my life... when i moved, i left behind most of my "stuff". the only things i brought w/me are some clothes, my teapots, my Taoist/Buddhist books (even though i can't read them at this time), and my altar. having little stuff gives a sense of freedom...as Lao-Tzu said, to have little is to possess. to have much is be perplexed. a good blog to go to for writings on minimalism is zenhabits. i have it on my igoogle page. once at the end of every season, i do a "housecleaning" and donate the clothes i haven't worn that season. i figure if summer has gone by and i haven't worn something, i probably won't wear it next summer and don't need it. my objective is to get a week's worth of clothing for each season. that's it. always feminine, of course. DamselFly __________________ so long as space remains so long as sentient beings remain i will remain in order to help, to serve, to make my own contribution (Buddhist prayer, a favorite of H.H.)

08-17-2012, 07:59 PM	#3
socialjustice_fsu Member How Do You Identify?: Feminine Preferred Pronoun?: She, her Relationship Status: It’s all good. Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The gulf waters are sapphire blue and the beach sand is white as snow. Posts: 607 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 6,866 Thanked 2,155 Times in 439 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	... Thank you for the link and the synopsis of the article. I have been perplexed from time to time about this 'opposing' shift of view. Personally, I tend to lean more toward having what I need with a dash of objects that fill my senses, my wants. Following a move from a large home to a two bedroom apartment I took note at how much lighter I felt. My energy was not tempered down with stuff. Albeit, I had to take a long, skeptical look at the objects that stayed with me. I was taken aback by the amount of stuff I produced for a huge (successful) estate sale prior to my move. It was then I felt as if I was an organized hoarder. In the past I could spend hours upon days sorting, filing, and packing in just the right decorative box that, yes, I had spent a number of hours shopping for...only to discover there were some major issues I had going on in my life that I simply could ignore by diving into the perpetual move of organizing a box, drawer, closet. Now that I have been in my apartment a couple of years with much less stuff and a lot more chi I feel lighter, not so burdened with the organizing and the upkeep of such a system. I have also discovered that life really does pass one by rather they overtly or covertly hoard. Call it what you will...but I know now that when I jump into that "I need to revise, re-do, reorganize mode" - I just might need to take a look at what I am avoiding and find a healthy means to cope with it. __________________ If you are going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill

11-01-2012, 03:37 PM	#5
Kelt Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Beach Butch Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: SoCal Posts: 2,751 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 19,765 Thanked 15,284 Times in 2,538 Posts Rep Power: 21474853	Eating my own hat Digital clutter Digital clutter is one of the last "clearing out" areas I have to deal with. Also one of the most insidious. It's one of those out of sight out of mind things for me. It's still kind of crazy making though. I can't really even figure out how bad it has gotten. Especially with all of the cloud storage available for free. With auto save set up, I know where it goes to live, can search to find whatever I want, and it's all safe and sound even it the house burns down. Even so, it feels like I have a Fibber McGee closet somewhere and one day it will crash down and bury me. The joy of digital photography. Now, without the cost of film or developing I am free to take as many shots as I want. I can try different angles, lighting and focal distances to my hearts content. The downside of digital photography; see above. My photo 'organizing' software has a really handy way of grouping things by date and time so that like items tend to stay together. You can then go further and make specific types of albums and things, use keywords, rate them, map them, all kinds of interesting things when you get around to it. Until then, they are clumped in time chunks. Well, about a year or two ago I started noticing that when I would go to look for a specific picture it would take a while to find it, but eventually I would. I figured I would get around to organizing them 'someday'. But, the whole out of sight, out of mind thing was working on me. Well, I'm putting my foot down and going to start on this. Of course it has taken a couple of days to bone up on how to best do this for the best outcome, and how best to use the tools at hand, batch sorting, that kind of thing. Sharpen the saw before cutting down the tree. The irrefutable conclusion I have come to is that in one way or another this will involve individual attention to each separate photo in some way. Either delete (a lot of them), move, re-catagorize, name, etc. So, okay, open up the big fake box in the sky and look. Seven years worth. Slightly over 9,000 images. See you in about a year. Then I can start on documents, email archives………….

11-02-2012, 08:00 AM	#7
Greco Senior Member How Do You Identify?: GNC, not Trans, REAL. TIME. ONLY. Preferred Pronoun?: REAL. TIME. ONLY. Relationship Status: REAL. TIME. ONLY. Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: In a good life. Posts: 3,200 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 11,160 Thanked 6,616 Times in 2,285 Posts Rep Power: 0	minimalist Well, I am down to the most essential...my wife's kitchen things, my books, and things I use for creative "work"...all "things" I enjoy, love, find beautiful. To say that life is a gift doesn't come close for me, and I am grateful beyond words to live with simplicity, economy, beauty (essential for me)...moving once again soon...and will keep it minimal, spacious, uncluttered, comfortable. Greco

08-17-2012, 06:18 PM	#2
Kelt Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Beach Butch Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: SoCal Posts: 2,751 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 19,765 Thanked 15,284 Times in 2,538 Posts Rep Power: 21474853	This little article landed in my inbox today, and I thought this might be a good place for it. I consider myself to be a moderate minimalist but this made me realize that I still need to organize...hmm..or not, a couple of areas in my home. Organizing is often well-planned hoarding http://theminimalists.com/about/ We need to start thinking of organizing as a dirty word. It is, in fact, a sneaky little profanity—a pernicious little booger—who keeps us from simplifying our lives. Our televisions would have us believe that there’s a battle being fought on the consumption continuum, a battle between the organizers and the hoarders. And from our couches it’s hard to see who’s winning. We’d like to posit to you, however, that these two sides are working together, colluding to achieve the same thing: the accumulation of more stuff. One side—the hoarders—does so overtly, leaving everything out in the open, making them easy targets to sneer at. But the other side—the sneaky organizers—are more covert, more systematic, more devious when it comes to the accumulation of stuff. Ultimately, though, organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding. Sure, both sides go about their hoarding differently, but the end result is not appreciably different. Whether our homes are strewn with wall-to-wall material possessions or we have a complex ordinal item-dispersal system, color-coded and alphabetized, we’re still not dealing with the real problem. No matter how organized we are, we must continue to care for the stuff we organize, cleaning and sorting our methodically structured belongings. When we get rid of the superfluous stuff, however, we can focus on life’s more important aspects. Said another way: We can spend the day focusing on our health, on our relationships, on pursuing what we’re passionate about. Or we could, of course, reorganize our basement again. Once the excess stuff is out of the way, staying organized is much easier anyway.

08-18-2012, 04:00 PM	#4
cinnamongrrl Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: cleverly disguised as a responsible adult* Preferred Pronoun?: wild woman Relationship Status: No, thank you. Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Home in NC..gonna dig in like a tick this time… Posts: 7,664 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 15,233 Thanked 27,601 Times in 6,958 Posts Rep Power: 21474859	Let me start by saying I do prefer organization...i strive for it. With teenagers...its not always feasible. One thing i HAVE learned... its SO important to have a place for things. Whenever I'm shopping at thrift stores, I always look for baskets, containers and totes. If i cant find an immediate need for it then my girls typically do. We are getting ready to move, so it's a perfect time to declutter our lives. I went through my closet and have gotten rid of things that dont fit, I dont like or wear etc. I went through papers and whatnot and recycled a whole lot of stuff that way too. In closing.....I can see where y'all are coming from...but theres no way Im getting rid of my books! :P

11-01-2012, 04:28 PM	#6
chakra Junior Member How Do You Identify?: female Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: canada Posts: 16 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 24 Thanked 76 Times in 14 Posts Rep Power: 1764516	Great Thread!! I feel as though I am in an ongoing process of decluttering. I am perpetually finding things to take to the Salvation Army and to the shelter here in town. I have consciously ensure for every one thing I bring into my house, three things must leave. Despite that, I still own a lot. I was laying in bed last night thinking of what my kids would want when I die. I think in those terms now. I was in a serious car accident that has made me completely re-evaluate EVERYTHING. I don't want to own anything. I no longer feel attached to life. Not in a "I am going to kill myself" way, not at all. But, when I came home from the hospital and looked around my house I wondered why on earth I own so much useless crap. And how did I ever attach any value to any of that 'junk'. So, the painful process of decluttering my life began. I gave away my camera. If I can't remember it, who cares. I gave away my cookbooks. If I can't make it, I can look it up on line. I gave away my all my fiction books. I want to live here, now, not escape it. I gave away all the clothes I had not worn in six months (except my super warm coat cause -40 and colder is not uncommon where I live) I gave away all my china. And the list goes on. I feel lighter when things leave my house. What is important. That is the question I ask myself, truly ask myself, every day now. Life is a blessing. My monetary holdovers, not so much.