things I don’t need
Over the past six months I have drastically cut down on my personal posessions. I moved to Boston in June with a suitcase and a backpack. Since then I have had two smallish boxes of clothes shipped from back home (it’s getting cold).
And you know what? I don’t miss hardly anything.
At the end of August I made the decision I was staying past the end of the summer. My roommates‘ lease was ending and I needed a new place to live. I found a place pretty quickly with a coworker. But in the process of the move, I had noticed that I had accumulated quite a few posessions: papers, swag, electronics, junk; it was nothing that I needed.
I took stock and I pared down my posessions again. I got rid of a few clothes that I didn’t wear, dumped any paper and swag I didn’t really need. So when I moved to my new place, I came with two suitcases, the second picked up from traveling for OLPC (my backpack in the second suitcase).
Again about a week ago, I threw away a smallish pile of things that I didn’t need, and it felt really good.
I hear that back home my parents have gotten rid of much of my furnature, sold some of my books, and are looking to git rid of more.
Good.
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Ayelet
November 27, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
no wonder Trinny and Susannah throw away people’s entire closet on any episode of What not to Wear. It’s a matter of spiritual progress. :)
I miss the worldly possessions I left behind, I must admit. Ever since I worked my ass off when I was 16 to get myself a queen-size bed (my parents wouldn’t buy me one until I was 25…:P), I get attached to stuff I own. I miss my books, my half-broken incredibly-ugly coach, my 80s stuffed ALF and most of all my lovely old Rover (which made me think that Woolf should have named her book “A Car of One’s Own”. Nothing empowers women more than the option to get their car and drive away for hours). These are the props of my life, for good and bad. It doesn’t feel the same without them.
theorique
November 30, 2008 @ 11:42 am
‘the things you own, end up owning you’
it’s a good decision and an important process, although I do sometimes regret leaving certain books behind.
(good to meet you, briefly, at the IS2 event last evening)
Jessipoo
December 26, 2008 @ 1:47 am
I remember talking about this with you. I couldn’t agree more, although I go through vascillations. At times I rid myself of baggage; at times I nest. I’m in a nesting period right now, but when Mom sent me a bunch of little crap for Christmas, while I enjoyed her love (she lives out in the Cape, you know, not far from you), I don’t NEED all these things to prove it. I expressed it to her–that I’m not terribly materialistic and it made me feel like a spoiled American–and she said I should be spoiled. Well. I have to admit, too, that I’d miss my vinyl albums. Everything else just makes my life beautiful while I’m inside, or gives me freedom.
Zornhau
March 11, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
Swords and books – can never get rid of any of them!