A recent article in the AZ Republic Living section front page story was about ridding one’s self of all the things that tend to encumber us. From emotional baggage, to all the trappings of success many have experienced in the last number of years, many consumers have gotten tired of all the “stuff” in their lives. I’m reminded of the dot-com run up of the early 80’s when all the quick millionaires were accused of being guilty of “conspicuous consumption.” These “overnight successes” were buying huge homes, driving foreign sports cars, taking exotic trips, eating $100 steaks and drinking $1000 a bottle wine. They had the big theatres in their homes, $200,000 pools, McMansion square footage and the list goes on and on. Having realized that after awhile it all means little, something called “emotional shelf life”, and all that stuff goes away quickly with a market crash, now some of these same folks are dumping all their “stuff.” One guy, Dave Brunno (guynameddave.com) got so serious about this issue in his life that Time magazine picked up his crusade. He vowed to pare his personal possessions to a total of 100 things by the middle of November. Seems like he’s well on his way. Another trap of having all these things that we think are so necessary is maintenance and storage. And of course, now we need a bigger house to handle it all which brings higher costs and the snowball continues to get larger and larger.
Thinking of simplifying? Ask yourself these questions adapted from Donna Smallin’s The One Minute Organizer and Judi Culbertson’s The Clutter Cure: Do I really need this or is it just taking up space? Does this help me attain the goals I’ve set? (Assuming you have goals) Does this improve my life? If there were a fire or flood and I had to get out quickly, would I grab this? Worth thinking about.
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