Well, you might know already how I feel about "stuff", lol, but today has been a revelation to say the least. I am packing up the place for yet another move and the volume of stuff stuff stuff still feels overwhelming despite many earlier destashing efforts. As I box up each item I recall how useful it's been to me or, if it's just a pretty thing, how often I've actually laid my eyes on it in appreciation. The truth is, so many of these items serve absolutely no purpose, not even to please me aesthetically. They are meaningless space fillers at best, an open source of irritation at worst. Things I thought I'd never let go of are in the give-away pile and it just feels So Good.
Something is happening here, a progressive loosening of old patterns and attachments. I feel somehow a reconnecting with self in direct proportion to this disconnecting from objects. It's amazing, just amazing. I realize how defined we are by our belongings, and what a funny concept that really is. When you are beholden to something you don't really own it, it owns YOU. I'm feeling the lightness of being set free.

what about your beautiful crafts?
will you still be making them and showing them to us?
i like them

it would be sad if you stopped doing crafts
because you wanted to "pare down"

where do they fit into all of this?

Yeah, please don't stop being crafty after your purge! I mean, maybe the acquisition of this stuff had something to do with satisfying a creative impulse?

Ah, you guys .

I could as much stop breathing as stop creating. But I find a studio overflowing with supplies hinders more than anything, it's stifling. I've been getting interested more and more in land art anyhow. Check this out:
[www.flickr.com]

I've even "destashed" my flickr pics, there were so many that they took up an enormous amount of space. These are much easier to navigate and access the tutorial sets too. Helpful.
[www.flickr.com]

whoaaahh.. the land art was gorgeous!
specially liked the "oak slab" with the way they made the leaves juxtaposed
and tinted subtle different colors and hues

coco
u could be a billionaire
with all those incredible crafts

sell em online

Yes, the land art is so fantastic. I really enjoy looking at it, I'm sure it's wonderful to make large pieces and then just leave them to the elements too. Wondrous.

Ver, I can't in fact make money with crafts. People want what takes me 7 hours of work to create for prices that equal around 1-2$/hr. For real, in the world of cheap Made In China-ness an artist can not fund their life with their creations. Sad.

that's not nice .... expecting pennies for hours of work

oh well...

the land art is really beautiful

show us some of that as you go along



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 07:37AM by la_veronique.

coco,
I can relate to this in a way.
That we are not our belongings,and to work toward detachment.
I used to be bothered so much by every little issue with my car.
Now I just say "I am not my car,I simply drive one"
Now the little quirks and noises dont matter.
We dont take any of our stuff with us anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 02:36PM by eaglefly.

When I was a child, my sisters and cousins would have a "Trade Day" when we would take toys, books, games, etc that we were bored with and trade them for something someone else had tired of. We didn't have much money to buy something new, so the traded item was "new to me." Negotiation was a big part of the fun.

That didn't DE-STASH, but did keep usfrom adding to our stuff.

I knew someone who told her children one day that they could pick five toys to keep and they'd give the rest to children who didn't have any toys. I don't remember if they brought them to a homeless shelter or what, but do remember the children weighing which toys to keep.

I (oddly) love moving. It is always a great time to de-stash. I enjoy the lightness of shedding unnecessary stuff.


My favorite raw vegan

trive

loved hearing about "trade day" sounds like fun

also, whoahhh... u LIKE moving cuz you like to destash?

that's kind of fascinating, actually... could you elucidate a bit more on that?
i never heard of such an attitude.... cool!!

I have always loved moving. It's a forced opportunity to get rid of stuff I have stashed in a box, pushed back on a shelf, left in a drawer, etc... I have to either pack it, toss it out or give it away. Knowing someone can re-use something I give away feels GREAT! I moved often as a child (and as an adult too), but as a child it was always with a loving family, so I didn't fear it.

Stuff is a burden that weighs me down. Like a lizard shedding an old, crusty skin, I feel lighter, freer and more mobile when I get rid of it. More stuff = more worries. Jettisoning junk frees my mind. Too much stuff is constricting. It can confine and define my life if I allow it to build up too far.

The older I get, the less I want material things.

Instead of "getting," I have become more interested in "doing" and "being."


My favorite raw vegan

I like to destash occasionally, when we lived in Italy I learned about "out with the old" tradition when on new years day people throw old/unneeded stuff off the balcony, pretty cool

I do it when I notice the clatter in the house and it starts to annoy, then we organise a spring cleaning day, preferably sunny so that we clean out the garden as well. We usually end up with couple of large bin bags of stuff to take to the charity.

I agree with the feeling of freedom, and having the house clatter-free can help I think - as then you know where things are generally, and your few essentials which you can grab and move on short notice, leaving the non-essential stuff behind with no regret.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

They throw stuff off the balcony? Who cleans it up? Gee, I try to donate everything that's still useful so at least it's not wasted. Not much goes in the trash...

LOL- all I saw was "throw stuff off the balcony" and thought of the 'hood. Or how my last town became...Some genius decided it was too much work to actually CARRY the trash downstairs to the alley and just dropped it from his/her window...Oh and lest I forget the dirty diapers tossed out of car windows...

Stay classy, ex-town, stay classy...

I lived near an apt building like that ~ garbage, used diapers, etc just tossed off the balconies. Our back yard was unusable, beyond nasty, dangerous even. Who are these piggy people? Yuck.

Yep off the balcony, it's an old tradition with symbolic significance and only some do it now, but it is still respected as old tradition

I feel sorry for your yucky neibourhoods!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

hi Trive

that's really neat
GREAT attitude knowing others will receive what you don't need and probably appreciate. i will remember that

Er...I don't think the village ordinances would cover such an act in my neck of the woods...I also don't think it would fly with my neighbors...

But does anyone have lots of books like me? I plan to purge myself in the near future and it's so hard to make the cut! I love my nutrition and New Age books so much! I was proud of my ability to let go of some of my astrology books but I have so many raw books and similar ones on alternative nutrition...Don't think I can part with those...

I'm down to one small shelf of books and that includes language, child rearing, self-help, crafting, gardening, and food prep. I only kept one or two of each. I have a habit of transcribing the really important parts of books into a journal so I have been able to let go of so many books that only had a bit or two that I ever wanted to read again. I found with so many books that I wasn't reading any of them, they were just there to take up space and collect dust.
I've cut down the kid's books to barely anything too, we just go to the library regularly to replenish the supply. There are very few that they want to read again and again, those are the ones we've kept though.
I have a few e-books on the computer but not too many, not so many that I avoid going through them to find stuff because there's just too much to sort through.
I have one book of cds too, and a handful of dvds. I'm not sure if I won't upload the music and get rid of the physical cds entirely.

The moving truck is coming tomorrow, I'm having a bit of a panic about that actually...

Happy moving day

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!
Once you get it into boxes it just looks like So MUCH! Ack!
I haven't even touched the kitchen yet either. This is not good, this is not good at all!
I'm going to take a break soon to get the kids into bed and then it's laundry time so I'm not packing and moving dirty clothes. Then the dishes. LOL. You'd think housework would just give you a break when you're in the middle of a move, eh? Come on midnight tidy-up fairies, where are you?

coco

since u love reading great books
why don't u get a kindle?
that way you can read all the books u want ( that aren't in the library)
and you don't have to worry about it piling up

can commiserate with you about all the stuff in the boxes
overwhelming
box by box though
then it will all be done!

my dad (rip) used to tell me i was a rolling stone and a rolling stone gathers no moss. i'm still a rolling stone and i find myself not liking the 'gathering of moss'.

life is weird, life is bad and life is good.

(emf/wifi sensitive people and kindles don't mix. source: me)

good luck with your move, coco. i read on earlier (which is how i found this board via a google question re: wifi sick) and i hope where you go now is easier on your sensitive self.

Thanks Sely, it is a bit better out here in the countryside but not perfect. There is internet, some sort of satelite thing that gives me head buzz. I've gotten a bit desensitized having lived in town in the midst of a lot of signals for the past while so this is tolerable, at least it's not totally overwhelming. Feels like I have a perpetual ear ache and mild headache coming on but I'm functional.
There's no land line here so I've had to turn a cell phone back on, blech. I'm using it as little as possible and always with speaker on so I don't need to have it too close to me. And very limited internet now which is such a blessing. No television here at all either, yay! And since it's an old house there are very few electrical outlets, about one in each room, 2 in the living room and kitchen each. Ha, this helps with the destashing actually, there are many lamps and other things we simply can't use so out with them. And though this is a large farm house we're sharing, it's already full of their things so I can let go of even more stuff. Soon we'll be down to what fits into the back of a truck. Perfect.
And then I'll move across the country, lololololol! Vagabond...

I am very close to where everything of my belongings will fit in the back of my mini van that has the rear seats take out.

Simple is great, free , enabling.

We're going to the cottage for the rest of the summer. That is one super crowed place full to the brim with junk (my mom is such a packrat) so it'll be camping out in our 2 room tent and taking the very bare minimum along with us. The kids are so excited. Lake, here we come!
I love living free like that, wish it was summer all year round .

Coco, why did you say that limited Internet was such a blessing? Are you saying it forces you to limit your usage or are you thinking of the kids? That is one reason I will not have it installed. It just freaks me out to think of it available 24/7.

I was at my girlfriends sisters house this weekend,and they have a 25x40x12 high basement that is filled to the ceiling with everything you could imagine,from foam insulation boards,to crab steamer pots.And none of it was where it wanted to be.
I thought to myself how heavy on the soul it must be to have to look at it every day,and who will have to deal with all of it someday...........

Imagine, that's how so many homes in the western world are. Plus storage spaces, people rent those and fill them up with the rest of the junk they purchase and collect and also don't need, lol. Not for me, so not for me. The only things I have that don't get used all the time are off-season clothes. I don't keep things that don't serve me in some useful way. I'm going off of decorative items in a major way, I think I've got only a handful of sentimental doodads and only one bin that holds all of our Xmas and Halloween things. The studio though, that's where there is quite a bit of extra. Mostly in the form of partially finished items though so it can be lessened with a bit of time and effort on my part.

The blessing of less technology, TV, phone and internet access is simply that. It's a time waster, an energy suck, a mental deadener (regardless of how much information can be had), and a spiritual drain. When it's there, I utilise it, but when it's not there I don't miss it very much at all and I also find myself doing more, thinking more, feeling better and interacting with people on a larger and deeper scale. Ever see a table full of people out for dinner, all on their cell phones? That's a nightmare that's becoming more and more common. I remember a time before any of this so I know we can all get along just fine without it all. I think we'd be better off without so much of it, all of us.

I know what you mean coco.
About the cell phones.
I remember seeing everyone looking at their hands around a table before I knew much of what was going on,and I thought they were playing cards or something!!!
Cards...............imagine that.
Such a simple game.
It will reach a point where people will be LONGING for the simple life again.
Vinny