The Struggle For Less

When I got back from the East coast, I stared in disbelief at the boxes of stuff I had in Dr. Cool's garage. I couldn't believe how much stuff there was. I actually got rid of most of my possessions the previous year, after my divorce was final, but I still have a lot of things. And the surprising thing is that I didn't miss any of it while I was in DC for four months.

This revelation has prompted me to get rid of more things. I want to pare down my possessions to the bare minimum so that I don't have to cart around so much stuff when I move. And also because I fundamentally believe in living simply-- it just makes my life easier overall, and I have found I am happier with less. Yes, my new motto is less is more.

I have a few good role models. Dr. Perceptive can fit everything she owns in her sweet new Prius so that when she moves all she has to do is load up the car and drive. Amazing, huh? Now that is something to aspire to. I know that for awhile, before he bought the house, Dr. Cool could pull off the same feat. Ditto for Dr. Writer before she married her wife. How do they do it? Dr. Cool had no bed. Dr. Writer would sell her furniture on craigslist and then buy new stuff wherever she moved. Dr. Perceptive's furniture is all full of air so that it compresses down to almost nothing.

There is quite a bit of stuff I'm not willing to part with. Sentimental things. I have a bunch of paintings stored at my mom's house in NC (thanks mom) and a few things at my dad's too. I don't want to get rid of my photographs, though Corvid solved that dilemma for herself by scanning them all into her computer and storing them there. (I might do the same but I will still probably send the originals to one of my parents to store-- I'm bad about trashing photos). I've gotten rid of most of my books. What I've kept is my poetry collection (for which I won an award in college as it contains several out of print books) and a few guides to birds and butterflies of the Bay area.

Right now I'm focusing on eliminating clothes I haven't worn recently. Then I will get around to my other possessions. I might solve the problem quite underhandedly-- by sending more stuff to NC to store out of the way there.

The other half of the equation is resisting buying more stuff. I live with the best model of all in this regard, Dr. Cool. When I moved into his house last March, he had almost no possessions. For the one month I was there, I cooked my meals (which at that time in my life mostly consisted of boiling water) in my camping pots. There was no shower curtain, so I only took baths. Etc. When I arrived back in San Jose last week, I expected that there would be more stuff in his house. Most people start to accumulate things quite rapidly once they live in a large space and feel more settled. Not Dr. Cool. The only knife in the kitchen is still the one my dad sent me last spring. There are no measuring cups or a teaspoon or tablespoon. It's bare bones. I commented on how impressed I was that not a thing had changed. He shot back, "What did you expect-- a plasma TV and leather couch?" Well, not exactly. So for the time being I've been cooking by estimating the amount of ingredient, and it hasn't gone too badly. Meanwhile, every time I go to a thrift store I take a look for some measuring devices. Other than that, I think I can survive with not much more.