veganjuice Wrote:
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> I guess I just don't get this whole concept. Where
> is the joy in living as a pauper?
>
> I came from very poor parents & I am now
> successful, wealthy & happy. Would I go back to
> living that way? Not on your life.


There is a difference between not being able to afford or get the things you need to live and choosing to simplify your life. It's the difference between wanton sex and faithfulness to a partner or abstinence, the difference between eating well (a good, healthy diet) and gorging on delicious but terrible for you food, the difference between spending a lot of money on one quality item or spending a little bit of money a lot of times on bunches of junk. It's quality over quantity.
Believe me when I say that we have everything we could ever need and more, especially compared to people living in other countries. Even with this mostly emptied out apartment we have not gone wanting for clothes to wear, food to eat, dishes to eat it on, things to do with our time, books to read, etc. So what was all the rest of that stuff for then? Just to fill up space. And it required extra space too, this place is much larger than we need to live comfortably.
The difference between having and not having is attitude, a sense of attachment or non-attachment, which one chooses to embrace. For me it's non-attachment. So we have less stuff, we rent a smaller home, we spend more time together doing things and have more money to put into the kid's education fund, to take classes in things we want to learn, to donate to projects like this one [www.projectbonafide.com]. And we live a life of simple satisfaction, not running from the purchase or acquisition of one thing after another. We walk more lightly on the earth and are less of a burden on our planet and the people we live on her with.

My motto these days?
Make do
Do without
Use it up
Wear it out!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2011 12:35AM by coco.

coco Wrote:
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> My motto these days?
> Make do
> Do without
> Use it up
> Wear it out!
That's a great motto.
I'm in the beginning stages of moving to my final residence. I'm not ready for Natural Living like Amy in Costa Rica (she doesn't have a car....or a toilet!!!), but I plan to scale down to the bare essentials. My Blender, Knife, and Cutting Board are 3 things I will be taking......WY

Nice WY. I love Amy's set up but don't know how that would work with my kids. I like having some resources to entertain and educate them with!
There are plenty of kitchen things we're keeping too, blender, dehydrator, juicer, ice cream maker, spiralizer, etc. And we each have one box of books, a bin of "stuff" (toys for the kids, nicknacker things for me), clothes, shoes, laptops, cameras, photo albums, and I have sewing machines and art supplies, I also kept our bed and 2 very small wooden desks to work at and lamps for them. It seems like a lot when I think about it or list it but it is a fraction of what we used to have. I felt so burdened with all of that though, it really weighed me down. I believe the saying "less is more" these days with all my heart <3.

coco Wrote:
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> ........It seems like a lot when I think about it or
> list it but it is a fraction of what we used to
> have.
And to think, Ghandi owned only his Loincloth.
We're not comparing ourselves to anyone but ourselves.
Those are good strides Coco. My problem is what I'm going to do with all the Jeans and Shirts I own.
I forget exactly how Amy puts it, but she doesn't feel she owns anything....just using it temporarily......WY

[www.youtube.com]

The trick with clothes is to get rid of anything you haven't worn in the past year. Whatever is left, you pick the favourites and keep those. I gave away so much beautiful clothing that I just never wore. There is more of it that I hang onto thinking that "one day" I might have an occasion to wear it but it's so silly to provide a space for something that I don't really have a use for. It is not paying me rent by being useful, you know? If I really need a fancy outfit to wear one time it's easy to find gorgeous things for very cheap at the thrift store or consignment shop and then return it there when you're done with it.
Books and videos are free at the library
info on any and everything can be had online
there are toy lending libraries at children's centres all over the place
I sew and can mend or alter or make clothing and other fabric items
kids like to play, they don't need fancy things to play with, only imagination which is actually stifled by prefab toys and games
art is easy to make with natural found items [jrlandart.blogspot.com]
the less you have, the less you need, the less you need to have, the less it costs, the less trouble it is, etc etc etc.

I could go on and on .

coco Wrote:
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> I could go on and on .
I could too!! One of my problems is the amount of time I spend on acquiring New Stuff. Right now I'm researching Platform Beds and Memory Foam mattresses. That energy could be best channeled in different directions (once I get all the Stuff I need. LOL.......WY
P.S. I really like this Bed.

[www.charlesprogers.com]

Very elegant, simple design. I like it.
Have you seen this? [renegadehealth.com]

People came by and bought lots of furniture today, this place is really starting to empty out now!
Funny thing, a woman with one small child came by to see the apartment yesterday but she thought it was too small for the 2 of them. And here I've been thinking the 3 of us don't need all this space .

id love to have a bed like this [www.floatingbed.com]

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

At first I thought that was a terrific looking bed! Then I remember how much un-fun a hammock can be when small people are getting in and out of it repeatedly and I thought No Way. That thing would never be still for one second in our house, lol!

Jgunn Wrote:
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> id love to have a bed like this
They look like Love Nests to me....and very much on the feminine side. It would be interesting to know what everyone sleeps on now. I have a firm foam mattress, with a 2" memory foam topper...very comfortable.......WY

yea they do look like nests for sure

im sleeping on a coil bed witha 3 inch foam on top .. i tried a memory foam once but i sunk into and sweated like no tomorrow

but the foam on my bed seems to give me a bit of an allergy (soon as i lay down i get stuffed up and choked up)

im not sure what im gonna try next

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I have the hardest foam mattress ikea makes. I love it.

Jgunn Wrote:
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> im sleeping on a coil bed witha 3 inch foam on top ..
I assume your topper is Latex Foam. That should be a good combo.
i tried a memory foam once but i sunk into and sweated like no tomorrow
They do sleep 'hot'.
> but the foam on my bed seems to give me a bit of an allergy (soon as i lay down i get stuffed up and choked up)
The ads I've seen say users of memory foam have problems with off-gassing. Whereas users of Latex Foam (being natural) don't have similar issues.
I hope you resolve your problem. Something like that would get my full attention......WY

coco Wrote:
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> I have a small box full of shoes still. That's
> about a quarter what I had before and I still feel
> like it's way too much.

I assume you are a female?

I'm a guy, but I think most people have more shoes than I do. I wear the same pair of leather boots all year. When they wear down, I buy a new pair and throw them out. Switching footwear makes me feel weird. Maybe this is a good thing.

Most boots look like crap with a summer skirt or dress, lol.

I cannot imagine wearing boots in the hot humid summers we have here in the Upper Midwest! But I like the concept of replacing something only when its current version is worn out. I was at the wireless store yesterday to get a new pay-as-you-go card for my five year old cell phone, and they had the latesy version of a smart phone displayed right next to the current version, which was released only a year ago! I just thought[yet again], where's that asteroid when you really need it? . . .

When my old cell finally kicked the bucket I could hardly choose a new one to replace it, there are so many and so complex. I have one so the school can get in touch when I'm not home so it doesn't get used much and no, I do not want to go on the internet or watch movies on my phone thankyouverymuch. I don't get that at all, it's like reading a novel on fortune cookie strips. Ridiculous.
Nearly finished now, just cleaning the empty rooms and admiring all the blank wall and floor space. So nice.

Yes, boots and skirts don't always go well together!

I live in Oklahoma, so I'm pretty familiar with hot temperatures and humidity, and I hate it. But I still find my leather combat boots comfortable. XD

Regarding cell phones... I don't have one at the moment, but my last one wasn't even capable of receiving picture messages. I used my cell phone for three things: voice, text, and time/alarm. That's the way I'd like to keep it.

jargon Wrote:
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> Yes, boots and skirts don't always go well
> together!
I agree. But boots and a short Summer Dress is a knockout......WY

WY,

You mean like this?[caution: saucy European music video ahoy!]:

[www.youtube.com]

Tamukha Wrote:
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> WY, You mean like this?:
Not quite. I've only seen the 'look' a couple of times...More like this with Work-boots (Jeans are optional)......WY

[www.alibaba.com]

that was the weirdest vid ive seen for awhile lol

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jgunn Wrote:
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> that was the weirdest vid ive seen for awhile lol
I agree. However, the woman with the cowboy boots and short dress didn't do much for me. I'll have to watch it again.
It's amazing how far 'off topic' these posts can get. I'm probably as guilty as anyone else. But some of you are pretty good too.......WY

FWIW, a few random thoughts:

There's an interesting exhibit at MoMa in NYC about how objects are designed to communicate to us, with us....

Nomads somewhere (Mongolian? Roma? I forget) avoid houses, calling them "tombs for the living"....

Ray Bradbury had a passage in "The Martian Chronicles" touching on stuff, IIRC, in that part where all the black people in the United States leave for Mars (!)....

Me personally, the only "stuff" I have is books -- which I've basically stopped purchasing...I barely have dishes and cutlery, and I have had the same wardrobe for the past decade.

JuicingBodybuilder,

Your post reminds me of an old song by Bjork; coco, this one's for you, too:

[www.youtube.com]

Shazbot. We're moving into a new apartment and have nearly all our "stuff" there now and OMG it's SO MUCH!!! HOW did this happen? I just don't get it man. I really thought I had this bunk under control but I was sadly, sadly mistaken. Drr...

veganjuice Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess I just don't get this whole concept. Where
> is the joy in living as a pauper?
>
> I came from very poor parents & I am now
> successful, wealthy & happy. Would I go back to
> living that way? Not on your life.

-------------------

Amen to that!

Hey you guys, start your own consumer stuff loving thread! I'm happy to be a minimalist and find my happiness inside myself instead of in material things.

Oh, I found my happiness inside myself and outside myself - I'm beside myself with happiness