Lately I have been exploring the idea of owning less–really owning less, cutting down our possessions by up to 70 percent, I can see how having less stuff in our lives would give us less stress. There is less to maintain, less to clean, less to spend money on, less to worry about. Then I try to look at reality.
For example, this week, my so needs water shoes for a class trip and my daughter needs a gray shirt for a show she is in at school. Two more possessions that need to come in to the house. The school won’t approve old sneakers, which is what my son usually wears to explore the creek behind our house, and my pink-obsessed daughter will put that gray shirt in the back of her closet and never see it again.
This morning, I checked the mailbox while waiting with the kids for the school bus. An armload of junk mail greeted me. At least this could go straight to the recycling bin, although I had to use time to sort through it, making sure there were no hidden bills or freelance checks among the lot–there weren’t.
Right now I am focusing on making sure multiples of things fit in their space. For example, when my youngest son’s books didn’t fit on his bookshelf, we painstakingly weeded them out to fit the shelves. Somehow more books magically appeared from somewhere though, because I noticed that one again the shelves are overstuffed. How did that happen? Are they breeding? In the next go round, we’ll have to reduce their number even more to allow for the mysterious expansion. Later I am hoping that we get to the point where even less storage is needed. Maybe the books can share space with a favorite stuffed animal on the shelves.
I know that if I want to cut down on our possessions, I have to be ever vigilant, but on the tough days, I wonder if reducing our stuff will take more time and energy and maybe even expense of simply maintaining it. Hopefully, once we finally get up that hill, the way down on the other side will be a lot easier.
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