Stuff

          I'm further along on this whole tiny house / downsizing venture than I had realized. Right now, we don't have a/c, a washer or dryer, a dishwasher, cable, car payments (paid my car off 2 months ago!), or a mortgage and I don't plan on having these things again any time soon if not ever. We do have free internet where we live but if we did not then we wouldn't pay for it. Before I moved in I spent 6 months living without internet and I got so much other stuff done. Jon talked me out of renting a storage unit when I moved in (I thought, 'Where am I going to put all my stuff?!?!') and I'm so glad he did. My shopping trips for new clothes, which I justified by telling myself they were work clothes so they were OK, have decreased in frequency significantly, and my closet is still overflowing! These are all things that would take a huge chunk of cash out of our income if we had them. For us, renting a small apartment for the moment works while we work towards our goals. Now I just need to cut down on all the lattes!

          Yesterday I went through my books and DVD's and was able to pull out a few more to give away or sell. The eventual goal is to be rid of 90% of them in a year. Jon asked me to think about what books I want to have on the boat with me and I immediately said, "Harry Potter 1 through 7." This is pretty much non-negotiable. I also have some great comic collections, i.e. the entire Fables and Sandman series, and some of these are signed. For these, as well as other valuable items, we may have to splurge a bit and store them somewhere. I love movies and will watch my favorites over and over, as well as The Office, so I think I'll have to back them up on an external hard drive to take with us.

          I think clothes will be next on my purging list. I have lots I don't even wear, but every time I go to throw them out I think to myself, "But they still fit!" and talk myself into keeping them. I do hate wasting money so maybe that's part of it. Yesterday while at the gym they had a show on about extreme couponing, and one woman just about lost it over spending $2,000+ at a K-Mart but miscalculating her purchase so that it was not a zero balance. The store actually owed $1.58 to her but to her this was unacceptable, and she cried, "Oh God oh God my life is over!" while she frantically searched the store for an item of the exact value. I think a large part of this type of behavior is driven by our culture's obsessions with consumerism and "always getting a good deal." I'm sure hoarding is on the rise too. There is a very healthy and fast-growing storage unit industry that is taking off because we all are so driven to consume consume consume mass amounts of crap that 1) we can't afford, 2) we don't need, 3) makes us unhappy, and 4) keeps us locked into jobs where we work long hours. We have so much that we don't even have the room to store it all. Apparently a lot of stores did a "Black Friday in July" type deal last week. It's really not surprising; what's surprising is that they haven't done it sooner. Maybe eventually the department stores will degrade into monthly Black Fridays, or every day will be Black Friday, and then we'll never have to miss another deal again. Perhaps that is my cynical side talking but I do know that getting rid of extra items and cutting down my spending has made me feel freer and more in control of the stuff that surrounds me.