Good thoughts for the day…
It is thriftier to use quality materials and take good care of your articles, so they will look fabulous on you for years to come, and not beat up after a few washings. Economy is not disposable. Really.
Stewardship, preservation and caring for things, is another of my values. This, too, is at odds with “get rid of it, knock it down and build new.” I feel confirmed—and joyful–every time I walk through Grand Central or attend a concert in Carnegie Hall, for example.
Maybe there is something here that helps to explain why I was so moved by the experience of Abu Simbel, one of the temples saved from the dammed up waters of the Nile. To save Abu Simbel required international cooperation, caring, commitment, skill and $400 million dollars. To save it required a lot of “Yes!”
After visiting the home of a woman in an informal settlement in Soweto and chatting with her as she cooked on a paraffin stove in her two-room jury-rigged shack, the quantity of stuff I have in my apartment alarms me. And I’ve been consciously reducing my belongings over the last few years!
Miriam didn’t have many things, but everything she had had a purpose. Her home was painfully simple – and I do hope that she’ll soon realize her dream of moving into a more solid home, perhaps even with plumbing in the house – but she had put her heart into it and made it clean and cheerful. Her wallpaper was crafted from bright green wrappers from some household product and the exterior was painted gaily. The dirt floor was scrupulously swept and a few plants were growing in her yard.
Visiting Miriam’s house and a girl’s orphanage near Nairobi and a Maasai village made it very clear that it is not number or newness of possessions which make a home happy.
As I begin appreciating what I have more, buying fewer new things and getting rid of things I don’t need, it makes it easier to afford (or notice I could already afford) to contribute to other people’s quality of life. Sometimes that bit of money comes from skipping something I realize isn’t really worth spending my money on. (Never getting into wearing makeup sure has saved me a lot of money over the years!) Sometimes it comes from acknowledging that something brings me enough pleasure that I really should invest for the long term in it. Once you do the math you may figure out that ad hoc purchases are actually costing you a lot more than you really need to spend.
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I’m just not sure…
My Girl is a packrat. She never throws anything away if she can avoid it (hence, she calls our house “the magic house” because the odds are we have it (whatever it is) somewhere in this house). It drives me slightly crazy. I’d prefer to throw it away and buy it again if we needed it someday.
::sigh:: She’s probably right; it’s probably better for the world this way…
Note the first word is “reduce”. That means not only giving away to others what you aren’t using, but not buying it in the first place if you can help it.
We hired a clutter expert to help us clean up our place – we only have 1300 square feet so every inch of storage is important. We just can’t keep stuff we don’t need.
Freecycle is great for getting rid of things – you know it goes to a good home. I also take most clothes and things we no longer use to the Salvation Army or give it to AmVets.
I’ve become less and less attached to things, especially since cleaning out my mom’s house. I’ve decided to try and get rid of pretty much everything I can before I go…
I give to Goodwill or AmVets. I can’t abide the Salvation Army. They are so publicly homophobic that I’ll have nothing to do with them.
I am hopeful that my girl will see the light when she helps her mom clean out her house (in preparation for moving in with us).
Personally, I’ve never been particularly attached to things, at least not to many things. People… we’ll that’s a horse of a different color! 🙂
Yeah, I’m not fond of Salvation Army either. But they are close and convenient, and a lot of people around here rely on them for cheap clothing, so that’s usually where the clothes go. It depends on where you are – I have to go all the way to Escondido to give stuff to Goodwill.
There’s also a cancer resale shop where I take my good recyclables. They always have beautiful clothes and I’ve bought quite a few things there.
Cleaning out a house is definitely a challenge. I highly recommend a good clutter person to help with the sorting out. It was really helpful to have someone who wasn’t attached to the stuff really evaluate what was worth keeping. Of course for sentimental stuff, it was hard. But it makes you really think about what you want in your life – I’ve learned to get rid of anything I have bad feelings attached to, and become much happier for it. Gifts from friends who left me in a lurch were hard to part with, but it really helped a lot.
I am insanely attached to people, or at least, I used to be, quite literally. So now I am careful with my people attachments, too. Maybe too careful, it’s hard to get in with me. ;^)