Saturday, June 21, 2014

There is still hope

I always feel like something is missing. Literally, like my stuff is missing. I'm always unsure of where something is, or if I left something somewhere, or forgot something when I moved. Every time I move, which is often, I feel like I've lost something important. This is usually true, too. Recently, I've been looking for this pocket thai cook book I have, and for the life of me, I can't find it. And I know I've seen it recently. The object itself doesn't retain much meaning, but rather, I see it has money that I lost. Money that could feed me for another day or money that I could give away to someone who needed it more. Instead though, its money that actually just disappeared. Then I start to think why buy something at all if I'm just going to loose it? I've slowly come to the realization that its just added stress; we work to gain money, we use that money to get things we want, we either lose things, or they break, or we no longer have use for it. It'll just pile up, and we repeat this over and over again because we think that stuff makes us happy. Every time I've moved, its always been to a bigger place because I've got more and more stuff over time, and need more room for it. A bigger place costs more money, and requires more natural resources. So stress to get money, stress to get things, stress to move into a bigger place for my things. All in all, its just some continuous loop of requiring more money and resources just to have junk, which the junk itself, and the money causing me more stress.

Its kind of a twisted circle of bullshit.

And I've decided to come up with a plan.

(I wish happiness was as easy as a pill)

  • Get rid of stuff. Everything that I haven't used in a month should be sold or tossed out.
  • Finish unfinished projects, or get rid of them. I have a lot of craft stuff that I haven't touched since I bought it.
  • Murder clutter. I actually have nearly two shelves worth of decorative junk. Its nice to look at, but all it does is collect dust. It adds no sustainable value or is in anyway useful to my life.
  • Downsize. Use less, waste less. I have four empty pet cages, and a pet travel tote. Its just taking up space.
  • Be more mindful. Find new uses for old things, and buy things more carefully. Be selective, and creative.
These are just of the tiny steps in which I'm taking in order to simplify my life. Not only will this allow me to save money, but it will also allow me to breathe more freely. By creating a smaller foot print of just stuff I know, is just the beginning however.

(The long game)

After I've minimized my junk-footprint, I'd like to minimize my carbon footprint. Downsize not only my stuff, but my life. Although, I don't entirely have a conceptual plan for this yet, I know it'll involve bio-diesel and alternative energy. Energy is free, why should we pay for it? There should be no power plants, everyone should be required to have solar panels as a standard, but that's for another post. Probably the biggest change however, is where I'll call home. Something like this would be ideal:


Yep - that's the dream.

At least for now.

I'd like to own some land and be self-sustainable, too.

One step at a time, though.

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