Spring cleaning: Less Stuff, More Fun!

It seems that I will be staying in C'dale for the summer. I have found suitable employment and am being given time to complete my degree.  However, in the rush that I thought my life would be if I had actually gotten that job--the interview for which I thought I had "aced"--I had already began thinking about moving.

Moving costs money--something I have precious little of.  I am not interested in lugging around the kitchen sink with me on my next move.  When I was divorced a bit over a decade ago, I learned the hard way that there is a certain lightness of being in getting yourself free of your emotional baggage and we humans put a great deal of emotional baggage in our stuff.  But divorce demands splitting up the stuff.  I walked away from my marriage with a bed, a futon, two wicker chairs, and a patio set, a mismatched, incomplete set of kitchenware, my clothing, my dogs, and a distant memory of my sanity.

And I started over.  Cleaner.  Leaner.  And with greater purpose.  I did learn that most furniture can be replaced at your new place.  People will give you furniture.  You can pick up stuff second hand.  It is amazing how often nice stuff is available around you.  More interesting to me is that as I prepare to move, it is the furniture that I brought with me that I intend to keep.  I have or will donate the furniture that was donated to me.  Paying it forward, so to speak.  It is time to remember that lesson and let some of this emotional stuff go.  In the spirit of spring cleaning, I am sorting through all my stuff.  All of it.  And I am turning a critical eye to it as I do so.  The goal is getting rid of the old, tired, outdated, unused, not-really-feeling-it, outlived-its-usefulness objects in my house and  streamlining.  Opening up the space I live in so I'm not tripping over the clutter.

I realized over the past several months that I can borrow or rent a great number of things that I thought I had to buy.  Did you know that Home Depot rents tools?  Kid you not!  This is going to save me a fortune.  So with that in mind, I can open up some new space possibilities.

Here's the rules.

1. If I use it frequently, it can stay.  No questions asked.  What's frequently?  Daily to once a month.
2. If I use it infrequently (less than once a month, but more than twice a year), I ask the following questions:
• Does it improve my quality of life?
• Is it convenient to store?
• Would I be inconvenienced if I didn't have it?
3. If I never use it, it's gone.  No questions asked.  
4. Do I have more than one?  Can another object I use more often fulfill the same purpose (multipurpose tools)
5. If it is an emotional object, do I display it?
6. If it is an object intended to beautify my living space, does it?  Do I still like it?
7. Would it be cheaper to replace it at my new home than the cost to move it?
8. Do I have more of this object than I could ever use?  Prioritize them by desirability and let the rest go.
9. Some items were purchased for a one-time project.  This includes a lot of tools.  How to decide what stays and what goes?
• If I needed it again, could I borrow or rent it?
• How likely is it that I will need it again?

Questions I purposefully avoid:

1. Can I sell it for what I put in it?  This really doesn't matter.  I am paying to store it.  I am paying to lug it around.  I am paying to keep it safe.  Objects cost money to keep.   They are the hidden costs.  The only question that matters is "Is this useful in my life?"  If it's not, nothing else really matters.
2. Will I use it one day?  An object would have to be pretty damn small and pretty damn expensive for me to keep just because I will use it "one day".  If I use something once a decade, it is really worth it to store it that long?

The garage will be the repository for the not-a-useful-part-of-my-life objects.  The first object heading out there?  A bread machine.  (Unless, of course, Liv wants it so she won't have to knead).  And this spring, when the task is completed, I'm gonna have one hell of a garage sale.  What's left over after that will be given to friends, family, or donated to charity.  

Living Sustainably

I think that as biologists, my peers and I struggle with the knowledge of human impacts on the Earth and a desire to live sustainably in the realities of a modern civilization. As biologists, we are probably more likely to seek out environmentally friendly purchasing options, but like everyone else we let a lot of our consumption slide beneath the radar.

Packaging. Imports. Durability. Quality. Disposal. Pollution. Human rights. It seems to me that these are some of the issues of which we need to be cognizant in our purchases. And in my case, there are also the issues of poverty and obsessive-compulsiveness to balance.

I've been giving this some thought lately and there are a few changes that I need to implement in my lifestyle to meet my objectives of reducing my impact.

1. Drive less. I live a constant distance from work. That can't be altered. I'm in the boonies, so carpooling isn't feasible. On the upside, the high gasoline prices earlier this year "broke" me of the habit of hopping in a car whenever the spirit moved me. I used to visit my family twice a year. Now I go once a year or less. However, lower gas prices might encourage me to drive more. I must remain vigilant.

2. Buy less. This is helped a great deal by poverty and Jake-ownership. I have learned the hard way about replacing things Jake is prone to tear up. Can anyone say window blinds? However, I do have the issue of O-C behavior that sometimes causes me to become fixated on a product, which I purchase beyond my needs(food, shampoo, socks, and t-shirts). However, I can discipline myself. I know this is going to be a difficult one to stick to, but my objective is this: If I can't afford it right now AND I can't start using it right now, I can't buy it right now. Even if it's a great deal. Even if it's on clearance.

3. Buy smart or don't buy at all. I have a lot of things that are not very valuable. My furniture includes a 12 -year old futon, a 20-year-old coffee table, a hand-me down sofa-bed, a 15-year-old recliner, a hand-me-down upholstered chair that was liberated from Bek's old apartment. I think that chair was on her front porch when she moved in. I have two antique dressers, a 10-yo king-size bed, and a new breakfast table. I have a series of three shelves that I have hacked to make a tv stand for a tv I seldom watch. None of it matches. This used to bother me. It doesn't anymore. They are functional. But in the future, when I buy durable goods, I will do so with an eye toward quality and durability. No more crappy furniture or appliances. No more temporary shelving to hold crap I don't use. Which brings us to.....

4. Downscale my belongings. I just sold my dining room suite that seated 12 and replaced it with a breakfast bar that seats 4. It was the best thing I have done in years. It opened up space to move in my house. I should be doing this elsewhere in my house. Every time I move, I have boxes I never unpack. My brain tells me that if I haven't opened a box in 5 years, I should just not open it and take it directly to Goodwill. My fear is that they are full of "heirlooms". In reality, they are probably full of crap. I need to get organized and sell or give away the things I don't or won't use again. No longer will I devote space, time and energy to maintaining and storing things I don't use.

5. Clothes. Clothes demand their own category. I have winter clothes that are only appropriate for Chicago. These are quality clothes and I'm not getting rid of them in case I move back or move to northern climates. Ok, maybe I'm living in denial, but these are good clothes bought when I had money to invest in quality clothing. But I have a lot of other junk that is crap. I have clothes that don't fit. Two sizes too big or two sizes too small. Clothes that I might wear when and if I, oh let's say I ever get asked to go to the opera. I can only wear so many clothes in a week. If I don't wear it, I'm gonna sell it or give it away. I did this a few years ago and cleaned out quite a bit of stuff. Still, I couldn't manage to get rid of some of it and it remains there, back in the back of the closet, waiting for it's turn in the sun. This process, however, did have a bonus: I started wearing clothes that I normally wouldn't, and Bek noticed that I was beginning to dress "nicer". I think that was a compliment. :\ In any event, I am going to get a handle on the clothing situation so that it is manageable within my living space.

6. Buy quality only when durability, comfort, or safety are considerations (home repairs, furniture, automobiles, work boots, shoes, dress and winter clothes), otherwise go as cheap as possible. Realistically, I think clothing should be expected to last 5 years with daily wearing and weekly washing--socks and underwear excluded. Dress shoes should last 15. Tennis shoes should last 1 year. Over the years, I've begun doing most of my clothes shopping at discount stores like K-Mart and Wal-Mart. I'm going to start doing most of my clothes shopping at Goodwill, especially for field clothes. I've gotten great compliments on some of the stuff I've managed to pick up in there.

7. Buy local when feasible. Buy used as often as possible.

8. Buy with an eye to wasteful packaging and disposal.

9. Stop buying on credit. This was harder when gas prices were high--I did have to get to work and back. Even then, I attempted to alter my work schedule so that I could work from home 2-3 days a week.

10. Buy things that can be reused and recycled. No more plastic water bottles. No more one-time-use batteries. Although I am torn. Should I buy in glass bottles and reuse them for storage or buy in plastic and recycle? Any thoughts?

11. Set up some sort of scheme to exchange items among friends and peers. I think I'll start with our listserv.

12. Start finding free things to do with my friends. Hikes. Camping. DVD night complete with popcorn and juju beans. My social life does not have to revolve around the cinema, the bar, and restaurants. Nor does every get together have to be a "party". Sometimes, we can just hang out. How about a host-revolving "game night"? It can be poker. It can be Cranium. Want to spend time with a boyfriend who wants to spend time with his friends? Why not bring your friends and his friends together? Besides, who doesn't need more friends? Who's in?