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Why are the only two choices being discussed here seem to be "minimalist" or "hoarder"?
There are many ways to approach life and the stuff that comes with it, but Tamara posed a specific question about minimalists and how they deal with their belongings. My posts were an attempt to answer her question, not a call for everyone to embrace the lifestyle I've chosen.
How do minimalists escape the necessary clutter of life?
It's a remarkably simple answer: Your definition of "necessary clutter" is not the same as anyone else. Some people need less, some people need more. The choice is yours. The end.
Tamara,
You keep asking us in different threads "why keep powdered milk", "I have seven first aid kits is that bad". We give you our opinions, but you keep acting defensive about why you need the powdered milk, first aid kits, flashlights, Renn Faire gear, shooting supplies, ect.
Do you want our honest opinions? Are you willing to look at yourself if you think maybe all of this stuff in my house is getting too much?
It takes honesty, and that's not easy to take sometimes. I'm not saying you are or are not a hoarder, you're a free woman in a free country and can live the way you want. I'm saying if your lifestyle is really causeing you to think about your stuff then maybe someday you can say "My name is TamaraSavannah and I'm a hoarder." Then the healing can begin.
Ok, that's the psycho-babble part of my post.
Here's the practical part. In order to live clutter free you have to decide what is important and what is not. What is being used and what is not. You don't have to not buy anything, it's just that when you buy something, you remove something. One in, one out.
You can have hobbies too. Get say, two large wire racks. One section is for shooting supplies. I own firearms also. Every gun owner ends up with a holster collection, cause you're seeing what holster works for you. When you find that perfect holster, throw, sell, or donate the rest away! You bought all those Uzi magazines? Do you plan on fighting off a Russian mafia gang? I own revolvers, but if I had semi autos, I'd have two magazines. One in the gun and one backup. It's not how many rounds you have but hitting your target. Ok, cleaning supplies. I threw away the caliber specific cleaning kits, got one universal kit, and jags for .44 and .357/38. Ok, there's guns.
Moving on. The Renn Faire gear. If you think the rennie gear is getting too much, you can tell your club, "This year I can be Lady Mildred Weddington III, and that's all." You put the costume for Lady Mildred Weddington III in a plastic tub or two and that goes on the wire rack. Enjoy your hobbies, but put reasonable limits on the amount of gear you have. Keep your hobbie gear limited to one or two large wire racks. Put one hobbie's gear in a plastic tub and lable it.
The flashlights, Lawdamercy! I would have two, one by the bed, one in the living room, or garage. If you hear a bump in the night, grab the flashlight that is near your bed, and you can take care of the situation.
You mentioned an emergency drawer. How about keeping a bug out bag by the bed? Go through the bag, make sure it's stocked, and if you don't need something, or batteries are dead, restock with what you need only!
Lawdy, I'm getting wordy. Ok, try this exercise.
Get rid of one thing a day. You have five pencils on your desk. Throw one away. Notice your feelings throwing that one away. Did it make you anxious, nervous, fearful? Try it with something else, like a flashlight. Throw one away. Examine how you feel when you threw it out. Do that once a day for a month. You may find yourself losing your attachments to things.
Whew, I'll shut up now. Got homework to do. Good luck to you Tamara.
Tamara,
You keep asking us in different threads "why keep powdered milk", "I have seven first aid kits is that bad". We give you our opinions, but you keep acting defensive about why you need the powdered milk, first aid kits, flashlights, Renn Faire gear, shooting supplies, ect.
Do you want our honest opinions? Are you willing to look at yourself if you think maybe all of this stuff in my house is getting too much?
It takes honesty, and that's not easy to take sometimes. I'm not saying you are or are not a hoarder, you're a free woman in a free country and can live the way you want. I'm saying if your lifestyle is really causeing you to think about your stuff then maybe someday you can say "My name is TamaraSavannah and I'm a hoarder."
"My name is Tamara Savannah and some people think I'm a hoarder, but I'm not! Just misunderstood."
It is important not to see things in the same light, not group them in the same class. Using powdered milk is just something I do. It's how I grew up, on powdered and skim, and it is how I live today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IheartWA
.........You can have hobbies too. Get say, two large wire racks. One section is for shooting supplies. I own firearms also. Every gun owner ends up with a holster collection, cause you're seeing what holster works for you. When you find that perfect holster, throw, sell, or donate the rest away! You bought all those Uzi magazines? Do you plan on fighting off a Russian mafia gang? I own revolvers, but if I had semi autos, I'd have two magazines. One in the gun and one backup.
Okay, I'll keep this to a minimum since we have another section for guns. First, there is probably no such thing as the perfect holster. Second, optimum load out does call for carrying two guns (hence, there is no such thing as a perfect holster). Third, standard load out for the primary pistol calls for three magazines; it's just the way I've been trained. Fourth, as previously mentioned, magazines are bought because history shows in this political climate that one may not be able to always get what they want.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IheartWA
........you can tell your club, "This year I can be Lady Mildred Weddington III, and that's all." You put the costume for Lady Mildred Weddington III in a plastic tub or two and that goes on the wire rack. Enjoy your hobbies, but put reasonable limits on the amount of gear you have.
Long story short, I do not think you understand what it means to be a Rennie or a belly dancer.
On a slightly different tack, when Mom was alive and I would go up for extended visits, I would pack the Forester with lots of back packs, packs that had different functions, different contents. I knew or at least believed from those packs that if I needed to do anything, I ought to be able to find enough odds and ends to be able to accomplish anything.
Similarly, in work, in life, those in my community, we don't think in answers of "one push buttons". We work out a procedure of how to get done what we want and then we trim down that procedure. To be able to develop procedures, one needs to be able to think in multiple spheres, see things for what they can do.
Be it like "Apollo 13" or special police units when there's been a disaster like, say, a tsunami, it's not about what you were meant to do, not about what it was designed to do.................it's about what can you do?
I'm not a minimalist.......I'm resourceful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by luzianne
My life would be easier if I didn't have to deal with my husband's stuff. I've always been a minimalist. I don't like knick knacks..............Like a coffee table. I don't need/want a coffee table. I like the middle of the room to be open. End tables, yes. Coffee table, no.
I don't have 50 pair of shoes.............
To each their own. Talking as a non minimalist, as that it has been agreed in this post that I am not one and could never be one, "knick knacks" and boots come under the title of "Playing to Myself".
Take cowboy boots for instance. When Shepler's did factory knockoffs (they don't anymore and I don't think I've bought there since), every 6-8 months, I'd get in a boot buying mood. Take a Saturday, go over there, and buy 2-3 or even 4 pairs of boots for under $200. It's what I liked to do, it let me feel good about myself, it's Me!
Or "knick knacks". I have three curio cabinets (2 bought, 1 inherited) filled with things from fabulous animal figurines, Snoopys, 007 figures, gift trinkets, some sea shells, and so forth. Some of the were bought during "Playing to myself" trips. I WISH I had bought the tumbling unicorns Pin by Sarah LeBoeuf on 80's child | Pinterest
in the 80's when they were available, but I just didn't have the cash then.
I inherited Mom's coffee table and it seems like it was a good thing to have for at least 3 reasons. First of all, it currently serves as a Cat Cave for Melinda and Warren. Up against a wall, boxes on the other side, it is their place, their retreat. Secondly, in the thread about what to have around while guests wait, it concluded with a coffee table book....and hence, a coffee table. Finally, as I try to establish https://www.city-data.com/forum/house...e-out-how.html
it gives me a focal point on how to see myself, potentially to expand out from there.
But as I said, to each their own.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 10-02-2014 at 01:08 AM..
So the point of this thread was not for you to learn anything about minimalism, despite the question you posed at the beginning of the thread. You just wanted the opportunity to share your perspective, justify your lifestyle, and ask to be understood. Got it.
Here's the thing. It's perfectly all right that you stockpile skim milk, collect Rennie costumes and stage make-up, fill your house with memoribilia, and create a personal arsenal suitable for the zombie apocalypse. I really don't care, but it was inconsiderate to pose a question about minimalism when your only apparent goal was to garner support for a lifestyle that is the anathema to everything minimalism represents.
Don't waste our time. Be honest and admit that you like the way you live, you have no intention of changing, and you just want to kvetch.
Last edited by randomparent; 10-02-2014 at 04:22 AM..
So the point of this thread was not for you to learn anything about minimalism, despite the question you posed at the beginning of the thread. You just wanted the opportunity to share your perspective, justify your lifestyle, and ask to be understood. Got it.
Here's the thing. It's perfectly all right that you stockpile skim milk, collect Rennie costumes and stage make-up, fill your house with memoribilia, and create a personal arsenal suitable for the zombie apocalypse. I really don't care, but it's inconsiderate to pose an insincere question about minimalism when your only apparent goal is to garner support for a lifestyle that is the anathema to everything minimalism represents.
Don't waste our time. Be honest and admit that you like the way you live, you have no intention of changing, and you just want to kvetch.
No-o......................you convince me that I can't be a minimalist. I had rather checked out on this thread back at post 27, page 3. I had thanked all for their input at that point.
I just got drawn back into it a time or two.
As far as being "understood".....sorry about that. I'm playing "Callisto" of "Xena" at that point. Ie, "Not Crazy......just misunderstood!". It's understandable that people wouldn't lock in on that without a direct reference, but that's the Net for you. So hard to see when people are being frivilous.
As far as the zombie apocalypse (and for that matter, any other labels), I put that down to the influence of popular culture. As that I don't watch TV in the popular sense, I am not so quickly influenced by such labels, such assumptions. I have never seen an episode of The Walking Dead, I think the last time I watched AMC was when a belly dancing friend was on it, I think the last TV show I saw about zombies was Sliders, and the last movie was Dawn of the Dead. I have given my reasons for why peripherals are stocked for my weapons; if others wish to assume other reasons, oh well.
As far as powdered milk goes, I really don't think I have more than 2, maybe 3 boxes of the stuff around. Brisket and Salmon, though are something else, seeing as I am about to have 2 ice boxes full of the stuff. It's just a point on the former that prices dropped for a moment, so I stocked up; on the latter, finding cheap whole Salmon these days, like at $2.97/lb, is TOUGH, so whenever I come across a stock, a fish market that sells it as such, I buy as much as I can.
But, once again, there we go. You have shown me that by my nature, my hobbies, approach to cooking that I can not be a minimalist and there's nothing wrong with that.
No. My daughter and I are vegetarians. My husband and sons do not eat beef, although they enjoy chicken and fish. We do create some unavoidable waste from kitchen scraps, which we make every effort to compost. I generally purchase my fish and poultry trimmed, although if I roast a whole chicken, I will simmer the carcass for stock before discarding it.
The photo you see in my profile was posted in response to a long-ago thread about plastic bag bans, showing how I shop to minimize packaging waste. We are not survivalists or back-to-the-land types, just average suburbanites making an effort to reduce our household trash and live more lightly on the earth. Some weeks we have nothing to haul to the curb. Other weeks, we are not nearly so successful. We're works in progress.
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