Author Topic: Living small, or just living with less, and not just because you have too...  (Read 21322 times)

Julian

  • samoture
Some clever chap once said "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

I'm going to go through my stuff this summer, hopefully with that maxim in mind, and chuck out the useless and hideous clutter I've accumulated.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Well said GruB! I was beginning to think I was the only one who enjoyed my possessions...
...and admitted it!

border-rider

<Comes in from trying to package into boxes the contents of the Volio Garage>

I would definitely recommend getting rid of as much as you can before you have to :)

Oh, I definitely don't live a spartan existence by any stretch! But getting rid of some of the crap makes me enjoy the useful/nice stuff I do have all the more. Most of my possessions I do enjoy very much indeed.

I am also a slattern who hates housework, so getting rid of clutter I don't want means less stuff to tidy up/clean round  :thumbsup:

Some clever chap once said "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

William Morris (Arts and Crafts movement)

Advice I agree with and totally fail to follow

S
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."


I am so fed up that I am almost ready to give everything away, despite all my friends protests.



Do still have that TCR ??  How tall are you?  I will collect  ;D

annie


I am so fed up that I am almost ready to give everything away, despite all my friends protests.



Do still have that TCR ??  How tall are you?  I will collect  ;D

Don't get rid of things just yet.  I am always giving things away to friends, even clothes that have never been worn, music, movies still in their wrappers, kitchen paraphernalia, the list goes on and on.  I even got rid of all the curtains, well apart from two of the bedrooms, I hated the dust and the lack of light.

I am  now going to tidy up as the place is a heap.

...I think accumulation of tat has much to do with staying in one place...

I haven't read all 8 pages of this promising thread yet (I suppose I really ought to do some work today), so apologies if what follows has been quoted before, but I thought others might find it interesting. It's about hunter-gatherer lifestyles:

"...the food quest is so successful that half the time the people seem not to know what to do with themselves. On the other hand, movement is a condition of this success, more movement in some cases than others, but always enough to rapidly depreciate the satisfactions of property. Of the hunter it is truly said that his wealth is a burden. In his condition of life, goods can become "grievously oppressive", as Gusinde observes, and the more so the longer they are carried around. Certain food collectors do have canoes and a few have dog sleds, but most must carry themselves all the comforts they possess, and so only possess what they can comfortably carry themselves. Or perhaps only what the women can carry: the men are often left free to reach to the sudden opportunity of the chase or the sudden necessity of defence. As Owen Lattimore wrote in a not too different context, "the pure nomad is the poor nomad". Mobility and property are in contradiction. That wealth quickly becomes more of an encumbrance than a good thing is apparent even to the outsider. Laurens van der Post was caught in the contradiction as he prepared to make farewells to his wild Bushmen friends:

"This matter of presents gave us many an anxious moment. We were humiliated by the realisation of how little there was we could give to the Bushmen. Almost everything seemed likely to make life more difficult for them by adding to the litter and weight of their daily round. They themselves had practically no possessions: a loin strap, a skin blanket and a leather satchel. There was nothing that they could not assemble in one minute, wrap up in their blankets and carry on their shoulders for a journey of a thousand miles. They had no sense of possession."


It's extracted from this, for anyone who wants to read more.
Profit or planet?

I've said for a long time that if I owned my own place, it would be a double garage attached to a bedroom and a kitchen.

Becky, if you like detective fiction ( and maybe even if not) you might enjoy the earlier "alphabet" books by Sue Grafton. Her heroine lives a very self-contained, minimalist life  :)
Profit or planet?

...this young man put his life at the limit in his questioning of how to live, and I wonder if the film has just used him as a classic 'outsider', and possibly turned him into a freak.

I didn't think so, not at all (having read the book a little while ago, then seen the film) recently. YMMV, of course.
Profit or planet?

but unfortunately have accumulated three guitars in the space.  I might sell one of them...Getting a wood-burner in the lounge is going to help

Hmm....just how crappy are the other guitars.... ;)
scottclark.photoshelter.com

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Even my downstairs loo is cluttered; there are tools for Henry, copies of Arrivée, spare loo rolls and my toilet frame...

Oh yes, I almost forgot that I have a large pile of magazines in there, running, cycling and Arrivee, plus the first aid kit.  When my brother in law came over last weekend he wondered if he had stepped into WHSmith as we have numerous maps in there, ok about 30 or so.  Maybe not as clutter free as I thought.

What about pics of our downstairs loos?

I just love maps. Any and all. If I am even vaguely thinking of going somewhere then I will get the map.

Fantastic things, maps.

I will try the getting rid of seven things this weekend. One will be the kitchen sink.

..d
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

annie

Even my downstairs loo is cluttered; there are tools for Henry, copies of Arrivée, spare loo rolls and my toilet frame...

Oh yes, I almost forgot that I have a large pile of magazines in there, running, cycling and Arrivee, plus the first aid kit.  When my brother in law came over last weekend he wondered if he had stepped into WHSmith as we have numerous maps in there, ok about 30 or so.  Maybe not as clutter free as I thought.

What about pics of our downstairs loos?

I just love maps. Any and all. If I am even vaguely thinking of going somewhere then I will get the map.

Fantastic things, maps.

I will try the getting rid of seven things this weekend. One will be the kitchen sink.

..d

I got rid of more than seven things but somehow another seven or even eleven things crept in whilst I wasn't looking. 

goatpebble


I am so fed up that I am almost ready to give everything away, despite all my friends protests.



Do you still have that TCR ??  How tall are you?  I will collect  ;D

Dear Grub,

I am 166cm tall. I am sure that my 15.5 inch frame mountain bike would suit you perfectly.

 :)


Where's an innocent smiley when you need it?


David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch

I am so fed up that I am almost ready to give everything away, despite all my friends protests.



Do you still have that TCR ??  How tall are you?  I will collect  ;D

Dear Grub,

I am 166cm tall. I am sure that my 15.5 inch frame mountain bike would suit you perfectly.

 :)


Where's an innocent smiley when you need it?



I am 165cm tall. It would suit me just fine  :thumbsup:
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.