This was it.
A flat which still contained very much of the stuff of the previous owner's life (After my grandfather died my mother kept the previous tenant who still lived there- until our move in,- so my grandfather's furniture, clothes and every other stuff which someone would recommend for a living was still in the rooms).
We decided to renovate the whole place before the move in. Before and meanwhile we got rid of lots of stuff and furniture, but also kept many many things, most of it wasn't necessary.
Who am I kidding?! NONE of it was necessary.
Most of the stuff was kept in boxes, or in the lockers out in the balcony! Which was a clear sign that we don't even need them in our life, somehow no one seemed to notice, or didn't want to...
As I remember, packing out everything took us a year, and still then we didn't have a place for everything. Many of the stuff was repacked in a different way and was put away again, and the repacking continued for at least four years.
No, I've made a mistake here, it is still happening. And that is why I started this whole experiment.
In the first years we got rid of things but -as I wrote before- we purchased new things in the same amount if not bigger.
If I can remember properly, it was only last year we started real downsizing, and stopped the brainless consuming of new,- and as it turns out everytime eventually- useless and unnecessary things and stuff.
This year we made two brand new folders in our cellphones picture gallery. One of them entitled as Everything I want/need and the other one is Everything I've got this year.
The power of the last one is surprising.
It kept me from purchasing many-many things, just because I knew I have to take a photo of it and the size of the folder would get bigger.
Now you may ask that why the sheer thought and fact that the newly purchased item will take up space in my life and home was not enough to keep me from buying it?
And I would answer that because if you can see everything you bought in one small display which is always in your pocket, the size of your stuff will be much more bigger! You see everything at once, which you can't if the stuff is placed or scattered around your home and rooms.
I was a collector for years, a collector of stuff, a collector of collections, some may even call me a hoarder and I would not be insulted by the term, because looking back, seeing the picture of my room from adolesence I can't even imagine nor understand how could I breath amongst so much stuff. Weeks before the move, most of the stuff was in boxes. I also made a journal entry on that in which the younger myself depicts the room as an old store or warehouse, and now I think who the hell would like to live in a warehouse or a shop?
And here comes the next thing which you could hear many times thanks to the writer Chuck Palahniuk:
Believe me, they can and will and do.
All of your surroundings, especially when there are so many as I had, asks for your time, your energy and your attention. They always call out: clean me, dust me, place me somewhere else, reorganize me, find me a new place, dust me again. And there goes your free time and you are wondering why am I not happy with all these stuff, they should BE for me, and not the other way around. Aren't they there to bring me joy, to help me relax? For God's sake I spent money on them and now they want my time and effort aswell?
This can not be continued.
Last week me and my fiancée had an argument, it wasn't nice and it wasn't short, and in some way inside this argument I asked her, shouldn't we reach the point of minimalism at last when we get more free time for ourselves and each other, and she replied that she doesn't think we are there yet.
So here we go.
I am fed up with things. After long years of collecting, hunting, organizing, dusting and cleaning, repairing, reorganizing, boxing and unboxing, thinking about, needing these things, I finally say: that was it!
After years of downsizing just because new stuff needed new place, living in this spiral of mindless and endless consuming because of some nonexistent instinct which always wanted new (not in the real sense of the world, hence most of the collection builds up from antiquites and second hand items) and more I finally decided to stop.
Stop for once, and stop for good.
A flat which still contained very much of the stuff of the previous owner's life (After my grandfather died my mother kept the previous tenant who still lived there- until our move in,- so my grandfather's furniture, clothes and every other stuff which someone would recommend for a living was still in the rooms).
We decided to renovate the whole place before the move in. Before and meanwhile we got rid of lots of stuff and furniture, but also kept many many things, most of it wasn't necessary.
Who am I kidding?! NONE of it was necessary.
 |
| The display cabinet which I brought with myself from home, on the picture it's much less crowded than it originally was. Nowadays it stands empty waiting for a new owner. |
As I remember, packing out everything took us a year, and still then we didn't have a place for everything. Many of the stuff was repacked in a different way and was put away again, and the repacking continued for at least four years.
No, I've made a mistake here, it is still happening. And that is why I started this whole experiment.
In the first years we got rid of things but -as I wrote before- we purchased new things in the same amount if not bigger.
If I can remember properly, it was only last year we started real downsizing, and stopped the brainless consuming of new,- and as it turns out everytime eventually- useless and unnecessary things and stuff.
 |
| One of the two display cabinets of the living room. |
This year we made two brand new folders in our cellphones picture gallery. One of them entitled as Everything I want/need and the other one is Everything I've got this year.
The power of the last one is surprising.
It kept me from purchasing many-many things, just because I knew I have to take a photo of it and the size of the folder would get bigger.
Now you may ask that why the sheer thought and fact that the newly purchased item will take up space in my life and home was not enough to keep me from buying it?
And I would answer that because if you can see everything you bought in one small display which is always in your pocket, the size of your stuff will be much more bigger! You see everything at once, which you can't if the stuff is placed or scattered around your home and rooms.
I was a collector for years, a collector of stuff, a collector of collections, some may even call me a hoarder and I would not be insulted by the term, because looking back, seeing the picture of my room from adolesence I can't even imagine nor understand how could I breath amongst so much stuff. Weeks before the move, most of the stuff was in boxes. I also made a journal entry on that in which the younger myself depicts the room as an old store or warehouse, and now I think who the hell would like to live in a warehouse or a shop?
 |
| Top shelf of the glass display cabinet, the shelf is now empty, everything has been sold, donated or (likein the case of the Joker bust) placed somewhere else. |
And here comes the next thing which you could hear many times thanks to the writer Chuck Palahniuk:
"The things you own end up owning you!"
I think many a man would think that's bullshit, they are lifeless things, how could they take over...?Believe me, they can and will and do.
All of your surroundings, especially when there are so many as I had, asks for your time, your energy and your attention. They always call out: clean me, dust me, place me somewhere else, reorganize me, find me a new place, dust me again. And there goes your free time and you are wondering why am I not happy with all these stuff, they should BE for me, and not the other way around. Aren't they there to bring me joy, to help me relax? For God's sake I spent money on them and now they want my time and effort aswell?
This can not be continued.
Last week me and my fiancée had an argument, it wasn't nice and it wasn't short, and in some way inside this argument I asked her, shouldn't we reach the point of minimalism at last when we get more free time for ourselves and each other, and she replied that she doesn't think we are there yet.
So here we go.
I am fed up with things. After long years of collecting, hunting, organizing, dusting and cleaning, repairing, reorganizing, boxing and unboxing, thinking about, needing these things, I finally say: that was it!
Stop for once, and stop for good.
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