Cleansing and maintenance
With the news that the condo that we're renting that has a foreclosure judgment against it is almost under contract by people who want to use it as an investment property and keep us as tenants, we have been finally able to unpack and settle into this place to make it more of a home than just a place to sleep. I never realized the impact of not having a 'home' until earlier this year and it was something that was causing me a great deal of stress. Well, that, being the unwitting victims of the foreclosure crisis and having boxes of crap everywhere. Long story short, we're finally unpacking crap and while I was in Phoenix visiting Gramma and Grampa, Tom unloaded our storage room. We have a lot of crap. A.Lot.of.Crap. And Tom and I are both feeling a little overwhelmed by it, so we've decided to do something about it.Tom and I have been working really hard the last few weeks going through a bunch of stuff and creating donate and to sell piles in our bedroom which are both substantial. We're getting rid of a lot and it feels really good. Having less stuff, and less clutter, really makes living in our home much easier. This weekend will be the ebay and craigslist where we will attempt the amazing feat of listing all of the goods for sale. And there is a lot to sell.
Then, there's the maintenance of this new crap-less lifestyle which will be the most difficult part. How do we stay at where we are and not get caught up in the consumerist trap again? Why not try a month without buying stuff other than essentials? Sounds easy enough, right? Not really, but we've setup some ground rules for Not Buying it - July
1. The basic premise is to only spend money on and buy essentials. Rent, food, kibble for wieners, bill payments, etc. are all essentials.
2. We each get one exception - Tom gets to buy a camera lens he's been stalking if it ever comes back in stock and I get to buy a spinning wheel since I had previously purchased one and had to return it (pending refund which I'm still waiting on).
3. We may buy other semi-essential items from the moneys earned from selling off our stuff. I have a key-tar that I'm getting rid of that will probably get me around 250 bucks which when combined with a gift certificate unspent from Christmas could potentially buy Tom and I a much needed new mattress from Ikea - one of the ones with foam. Certified Space Technology. Certified by the Space institute. Well not really, but I really like saying that about foam :)
4. Eating out, is a luxury and totally unnecessary. However, we may treat ourselves to eating out once a week pending a review of how well we've accomplished not buying it for that week.
So here goes day one. Hopefully I'll be able to make it through the end of the day. Tom, I'm sure, will do just fine ;)
07.01.08 8:51am(9 comments)
9 Comments
Good luck hunny, I think I need to adopt your strategy too, I have so much crap and so little space!
—Jominx, 07.01.08 11:04am
Jo – I’m gonna need all the luck I can get so thank you! I have to stop buying yarn, and bags! It’ll be tough.
—Kristy, 07.01.08 11:06am
I’m thinking I should try this too…would help if I’d stop trolling etsy all the time.
—rohanknitter, 07.02.08 12:21am
Isn’t it amazing…the amount of crap that accumulates over the smallest amount of time? You guys are a lot stronger than we are, though. We don’t have the stones to get rid of anything. We just keep stuffing it in closets and hoping guests won’t open the doors!
—Kerrie, 07.02.08 8:12pm
Cool, I’m glad to hear you can finally settle in! In many ways I’ve felt the same way about my job for the past, oh, three years.
At least you’ll be one TV short of clutter in about a week.
—birdman, 07.03.08 8:42pm
It’s day 4 now, and Kristy is doing just fine, despite whatever doubts she may have expressed in her post. We’re going to allow ourselves dinners out occasionally to reward us for (otherwise) sticking to the routine. The prospect of sushi dinner has been a powerful motivator for me
Hooray for us!
—tom, 07.04.08 3:36pm
It really is more difficult than one realizes to break the consumer cycle. Needs and wants blur so easily for all of us living in this land of plenty.
More out of neccesity than being overwhelmed, we are going the same route. We have cancelled our land line and our DSL, and got cable modem (this cuts us from $60/month to $35/month, and the cable modem is WAY better than the DSL). Library is in, Borders is out. Instead of buying new plants, I split and replanted existing plants in the yard, and we filled random open spots in our yard with tomato plants, to provide free food.
If you guys have a http://www.freecycle.org/ community (I imagine you do, if BG does), you might look there to see if anything you wanted to donate is needed by somebody in your community. Not only do you unload your stuff, but you prevent somebody else from buying it “new”.
Anyway, best of luck liberating yourselves from “stuff”!
—Skootch, 07.13.08 11:10am
Kristy,
It’s a few hours early, but I wanted to make sure to wish you a happy Friendship Day this year.
It’s been a while, and a lot has happened since then, but I still remember our St. Patrick’s Day fun and our trip to see The Music Man.
Happy Friendship Day!
—Keith, 08.02.08 9:29pm
Dan and I recently moved as well (as recently as 3 weeks ago). The most difficult thing I had to deal with was the attitude from everyone that I’m a teacher and do NOTHING ELSE with life during the summer, and left ME to fix faucets, paint the entire house (24 gallon of paint later – no kidding), unpack all the boxes, nurture the terrified cats, and have supper ready before 6:30 when a few people would come over for free food and complete a half of a project (and want praised for it). UGH! My father and Dan have been awesome during the whole thing, but I get discouraged at being left SO MUCH TO DO and all by myself. Moving is a pain in the butt. I swear I’m never doing it again.
If you get the chance, I need two things from you. 1. A description a of the kind(s) of yarn you like 2. Your mailing address. If I’m not mistaken, SOMEONE’S birthday is very soon!
And P.S. – turning 30 wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Sending love your way!
—Lesley, 08.22.08 7:36am