Friday, January 20, 2017

People, Not Possessions

The clutter busting will continue this weekend, three days where I have only light calendar activities. My house needs a good top to bottom clean as we've done nothing more than bare maintenance cleaning since before Christmas. I might give a go to posting a few things on the local Facebook site as I purge, try to build up the little side accounts I'm creating for the end of year splurges and making progress towards our massive 2017 savings goals. These possessions add no value to my life, but if anything sells, the funds will help us travel, send DD2 to college, and secure an early retirement, investments in people. DD2 will be in town for a bit this weekend for tasks for her friends May wedding and she and I will plan the shower she is hosting at my house. Reduced clutter by then will be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to take some pictures of my progress, practicing my photography, with my camera, but my cell phone may have to do. DD2 borrowed my camera for a school project, then loaned it to her friend who was doing some more filming, and uploading on her computer. I was annoyed with her for offering the camera prior to consulting with me. I also was worried it would get lost, stolen while unattended at school, or broken. Both girls are responsible, and it is a handy little camera for a small student film project. It's just a possession, just like anything else, and my daughter is more important. I got over my annoyance. What good are things, if they are not used to add to the quality of life? I use it perhaps one-two times per week, but they will be greatly aided in completing a quality project.

After my whininess about the delay in my furniture delivery, we turned our attention to getting the gas fireplace back in commission. We had an appointment yesterday, but it got cancelled. My first thought,. again, was annoyance, until DH told me they were short staffed due to a couple family emergencies, and an unusually high volume of furnace calls. While our fireplace does provide heat, it is not primary heat, so  falls into aesthetic want rather than the need category. The technicians deserve time to take care of their emergencies, and people doing without heat, as it is still cold here at night in spite of the January thaw, is a higher priority than me having a cozy fire. I notice I get annoyed frequently, and it is a pill of a feeling!

I read some posts in the UK about the January sales that sound every bit as horrific as some Black Friday horror stories. Shoppers loading entire carts with discounted items, wiping out shelves, taking things out of others carts, and pushing and poking to get the the merchandise. If I never participate in a mad sale again, I will be happy. I love getting the good buy on things my family will use (cheap pumpkin anyone?), but seeing humans at their gluttonous worst? No thank you. 

I remember the motto from the Art of Simple."Live simply so that others may simply live."  What a luxury and a blessing, to be able to have enough resources and choice to do this. I'm trying hard to think first of people, not possessions.

12 comments:

  1. Decluttering & getting rid of things we no longer needs gives me a mild high. I love it. Particularly if we can also sell the item. I had a couple of jackets listed on our local Facebook site, and they were super nice, very high end men's jackets (Hugo Boss). I just wanted them gone, & didn't want to deal with ebay & mailing. A woman bought them for $10/each & reached out afterward with pictures of her husband & how happy he was to have such gorgeous jackets. I was so happy! It cleaned out our house, helped someone out, and we all win.

    I need to keep up the decluttering this weekend, as we have Saturday mostly free. Good luck with your decluttering!!

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    1. This comment just made me happy. The win/win is what we all should be aiming for!

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    2. I like the concept of materials going where they are most used and appreciated. Less stuff being made, and yet enjoyed.

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  2. I've heard there have been some scenes in one chain of shops today as sale items are discounted by 75%. I have to be honest I've never seen it myself, but it must happen!

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    1. Years ago, there was incredibly cheap Lego sets. I had one for my son and a Duplo set for my toddler daughter. A women with a cartful already was about to take my sets out of my cart.Another shopper said something to her and she put the toy down. My one and only greed experience shopping but enough!

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  3. I sold over 30 items on our facebook 24 hour bidding site last year. All the money went into our weekends away fund which will be spent this summer. I keep looking around to see what else I can sell lol. I agree, leave that nasty shopping to others. I did 1 black Friday purchase online, an electric blanket which I had hoped would go on sale and it did (70 percent off). The only hard part was it took an hour for the sale to go thru. I did clean out our junk drawer last week - felt good about that.

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    1. That was a win! I like thinking of repurposing no longer used items into experiences. An old jacket becomes a boat ride on the ocean, for example.

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  4. I have no room in my life for competition shopping. I will gladly leave that to someone else. A few years ago we did go to a black Friday event at Sam's Club and I have to hand it to them. They had someone out in front of the store with printed tags for each supersale item and they handed it to you as you arrived in line. They had only printed as many for each item as they had in stock, and you could only check out with said item if you presented them a tag. It saved on all of the confusion and there was no mad rush of humans.

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    1. That was smart-why stores want the chaos and bad will doesn't make sense to me.

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  5. Good post. I think we all fall in that trap from time to time - we don't use certain items for fear they might break or whatever. Then why have them if we're too afraid to use them? Silly.

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    1. I agree with you totally, but do I toss the things I don't use because they are too nice? Nope!

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    2. Guilty! My China set is seldom used, but I'll never get rid of it.

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