Downsizing

Here's a nice little ARTICLE about de-cluttering your life of excess materiel objects and possessions. I did a nice cull of books and other things today.. more to come.  The figures in the article for self-storage ($22 Billion!!) are mind-boggling.

Having been visiting some of the local public libraries in around my area of Sydney (they are awesome!), I have decided to get rid of books I can easily borrow; keeping the more rare and obscure books in my library. 

Sitting down on my living room floor to write this, the house feels much more tranquil with less stuff everywhere.  Simplification and downsizing are both useful strategies (in this era of more/progress/possess); on a number of levels. For me personally, both are of constant use!

Screw 'Spring' cleaning - clean out and re-evaluate often. Use the questions 'Is this necessary?' 'When was the last time I used/wore this? 'Am I attached to this item?'  For me this has been very useful, and things I initially was resistant to give away, now, I haven't missed or thought of them at all.

For me, stockpiling of stuff when younger always had a vague survivalist undertone to it, but thinking about it now, it is possibly more useful to have less stuff; be more mobile and be able to improvise well.  It's also about having quality (not necessarily dollar-value, but usefulness quanta) items, for the things you do have.

“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” 

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk (bolding added by me)