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Because one ends up buying things thinking they are the answer to the perfect character only to be down the line and find out it isn't.
Because one can end up having so many costumes for so many different things.
I started belly dancing in the mid 80's and back then, when we did a show, we had one costume for the entire thing. Fast forward to now and I find that the advanced dancers have a different costume for each dance.
As it is, I'm still rather new to being a Rennie, only have one character, and I'm still building on that. I have replaced one set of bottoms with another style....and I imagine in the future, I will probably replace that with either buck skins or harem pants. To the latter, harem pants, while easy to make, won't quite fit in with my character.....but it is easier to wear tights underneath when it gets FREEZING. I have a buffalo fur cape, bought 4-5 years ago that I still haven't used, primarily because for what else I have has worked against the cold...........where it could work.
But on other fronts, let's talk about dive knives. Mainstay wise, I think I have 4 of them. One the current primary, one thought lost but was recovered the following week, and two with busted scabbards. All are still wonderful knives....and one appreciates "good knives". CRAZY KNIFE THROW - YouTube
Just because it is replaced in use does not mean it is useless.
Finally, to those who might say, "Aw, she's a hoarder anyhow!", say what you might if it pleases you........I care not.
Because one ends up buying things thinking they are the answer to the perfect character only to be down the line and find out it isn't.
Then they get rid of what they no longer need!
You seriously seem to not be able to get rid of anything.... and that is a problem that cannot be solved by strangers on a message board.
Clutter is not necessary.
It is possible to be organized and decluttered, even when active and busy.
But most importantly, one must WANT to be organized and decluttered. You are not at that point. Your excuses and examples show that. And you may never get to that point....
Let me be succinct here and say that when space is not needed for scuba tanks, costumes, stage makeup, firearms, boot hooks, etc., finding a place to store a flashlight and a spare set of batteries isn't typically a problem.
Tamara, there is really no way for a minimalist like me to give you a satisfactory answer to your question. We have fundamentally different characters. You are clearly a person whose creativity is fed by having a lot of options. I am not like that...at all. I thrive on simplicity and finding solutions to problems with things I already own. Lots of complex, equipment-laden hobbies hold absolutely no appeal.
You don't have to be a minimalist. In fact, I strongly advise against it. That said, please understand that a minimalist like me trying to explain the way I live to someone like you is like a fish trying to explain what living in water feels like to a bird. We can talk at each other, but there is little chance for real understanding.
Let me also state in general terms that minimalism does not always go hand in hand with deliberate frugality. I am a minimalist, but I am not particularly frugal.
Peace.
Last edited by randomparent; 09-29-2014 at 01:28 PM..
When I was shopping today, I took a look at the lanterns. Lantern with battery $6.87, battery alone $9.87. Hence, we do have the interesting situation where one can be economical with their money....but not necessarily be a minimalist.
About necessary clutter, consider pistol magazines. Properly, for a 3 magazine load out for one pistol, there should be 12 magazines. 3 active, 3 for training, 3 in the vault resting their springs, and 3 in reserve....and that's just one pistol. As things go, I have three active pistols, a large heavy (.45), a small heavy (.45), and an exercise pistol (9mm).
Or consider scuba tanks, two of them. One in active use, the other one there when the other is in for inspection or for affairs where I want to have two tanks on site. Or dive computers/sensors; I have three, 2 computers, one analog console. A back up computer for on site if one computer fails (or is out having the battery replaced, that tends to take a while), a final backup if both computers fail.
And so forth and so on.
I'm married to someone who's very into guns as a hobby and also has to carry for work. He makes excuses to buy all sorts of gun stuff, but he's never thought he needed more than three regular magazines for one pistol. 12 is a little excessive.
We also replace our flashlights every couple of years. When we do, it's generally with something smaller and brighter than what we had before. Then I give away the old ones. I do that with other things too...if I get something new, I sell or donate or give the old one to a friend.
The only thing I keep multiples of for my hobby is bike tubes.
An actress friend was relating the other day, "Note to self: put on the boots before putting on the corset.". I haven't had to experience that yet, my characters don't call for corsets, but I have had injury times where I couldn't bend my leg much without pain and it was most difficult to put on my boots the normal way. So I added to my household inventory boot hooks and since mine is a life where things can't be found when they are needed, I think I have 4 pairs (2 long, 2 short).
SIGH, another thing of life, a small thing of life, to find a place for. Or this weekend, I am doing some cleaning and tossing/shredding and there are about a dozen LED flashlights and a weather radio waiting for me to go to the store to buy batteries so they can be tested, off my left wrist right now, there is a USB speaker that eventually should have its own place......somewhere.
Somethings can have a designated place. Mom taught me to have an emergency drawer in the kitchen, a place with a flashlight, batteries, Sterno, matches, chem light, safety vest, camping knives, and the like. This came about when I was moving and she took all my odds and ends of such nature and placed them in one drawer.
I suppose as I make my resupply list, such as for batteries, I ought to add parachute cord to it ........ to tie around the cross boards in my closet that my boots sit on to hand my boot hooks from. It might be as "tacky" as hammering a nail into the wall for them, but at least it is a bit more functional. Granted, I have cord around, but put some into use, especially since the stuff unravels once the reel is put into use, buy some more to have on the ready.
Is "it" needed? In a functional capacity, probably. Right now, I am sitting in a $400 kitten toy and a $4 leather chair. Three cats over 14 years have done a wonderful job shredding it. It is certainly up for replacement. But there are a few things of life. It still serves its basic purpose in life, it's a chair and until I'm ready to fork out another $100 or so for a new one, it has its place. Besides, it's a proven kitten toy; why give them a new challenge?
But if it isn't functional, if the flashlights don't light, if the radio doesn't work with new batteries, then off to recycling they go.
Of course, some necessary clutter things seem to come with their own self replicating drives. You know that it often costs less to buy a new handheld camp lantern with its own spring top battery than to buy a replacement battery alone? Part of the reason why I must have a half dozen sitting around here and in the vehicles (got into them originally to illuminate training floats in a lake and then to supply my mother's house with her caretakers).
As I've gone through life, I've developed a back pack and now a tool/tackle box mentality. Have odds and ends of a certain nature, such as bike accessories? Make a backpack for it. My stage makeup is in a tackle box. If REI (but not other people) has duffel bags on sale, I pickup one or two because I know they can always have uses, permanent or temporary. As I find the power and memory cells for my DSLR, into the camera backpack they go. But there we go again, that self replicating drive. Where do all the bags and boxes go?
Well, back to the digging, sorting, tossing, and shredding.
Before I moved in with my SO, I rented rooms in other people's homes for about 1/2 the cost of a 1 bedroom apartment. This helped save a lot on rent but it limited the number of things I could keep at home. So I naturally bought less stuff as there was always the nagging thought of where to put new stuff in my place. I also worked long hours back then so I didn't have much time to enjoy a lot of stuff anyways.. internet was enough to keep me entertained at home.
I guess it helps that I live in California where the weather is usually nice.. had I lived somewhere with frequent snow and rain, I'd probably go insane being boxed in a tiny room all the time.
For me, stuff = stress. I'm naturally a messy person so I guess that actually works in my favor to tame any impulses to buy buy buy. It's easier to be organized when I don't have much stuff to begin with, and I found that the easiest, albeit a pretty lazy way to stay organized.
.......That said, please understand that a minimalist like me trying to explain the way I live to someone like you is like a fish trying to explain what living in water feels like to a bird...........
Are you sure you aren't psychic? I just awoke from a dream where I had about 15 bald eagle chicks deposited in my bed room. I was trying to sleep and these flightless birds were running around, scratching at me with their talons and sharp beaks. I awoke in the dream and then discovered that my bedroom was being overrun by frogs, big full grown ones and itsy bitsy baby ones and I was thinking that the baby ones ought to be bigger when they transgressed out of the tadpole stage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom
I'm married to someone who's very into guns as a hobby and also has to carry for work. He makes excuses to buy all sorts of gun stuff, but he's never thought he needed more than three regular magazines for one pistol. 12 is a little excessive.
We also replace our flashlights every couple of years. When we do, it's generally with something smaller and brighter than what we had before. Then I give away the old ones. I do that with other things too...if I get something new, I sell or donate or give the old one to a friend.
The only thing I keep multiples of for my hobby is bike tubes.
Well, I suppose experience drives one to whether they can be a minimalist or not....not that not being one or the other is a bad thing. It's just the kind of life we lead.
I think my dive bosses got me into having two dive computers because I when I only had one, it failed one time on a critical dive and we couldn't afford failures like that. So now I have at least two systems with me.
Pistol magazines, well, they are things that affected both by their mechanics and by laws. They are something that if one operates on the belief, "Well, if I need more, I can always buy more," they may find that is not the case for a law can be passed saying to sell a particular type no more. (don't get into the politics of it here, just view it as something that operates outside of supply and demand) Mechanically, one is looking at conserving the life of its most critical piece, the spring.
But as said, some ways that people chose to live just can't be done by others and it isn't necessarily bad. Thank you for the input.
That's something I wrestle with. I see people who have very sparce or minimalistic places and I wonder don't they have scissors and paper clips and envelopes and all these stupid kitchen utensils you never need but need when you don't have.
I think the key is organization and storage. I think there's alot of things you have to have but keeping them organized and out of the way makes it seem less cluttered.
Some people minimalists or not use common sense when it comes to purchasing items they feel they need for their home.
Instead of purchasing an item to replace an item that merely needs a new battery, common sense should tell one to purchase just the battery. It takes roughly 2 minutes to replace a battery in an item a wee bit longer if the battery compartment door is being stubborn and does not come off easily.
Otherwise if something is actually broken and needs replaced the broken item gets tossed or recycled and the new item is purchased and put in its places.
They have what they need and use what they have, no more, no less.
One other thing. Having a foraging nature, I think that rather conflicts with being a minimalist as well. As an example (though it is not meant to make this a gun thread), there were a whole bunch of Uzi magazines on sale because Germany was switching firearms. So I bought up odles then because they were available and on sale and I used such.
Long story short, one has to strike when the iron is hot.
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