Downsizing & Minimizing @downsizingandminimizing - Tumblr Blog

Starting

Four years ago, I started this blog to help me on a path toward intentional living. It was to serve as a spot to debate and soul-search and keep myself honest as I attempted to reform my lifestyle into one without extraneous possessions and relationships so that I might find more happiness in the things that I do own, and the people with whom I surround myself. My ultimate goal, as with so many other people who idealistically jump onto the bandwagon of self-help via intentionality, was to be happier - the happiest version of myself I could be. I thought that if I followed the examples of other young professionals who were cutting the crap and setting their own rules, I could fix the problems in my life, I could live a neatly-curated aesthetic of blissful fulfillment based on non-attachment.

I failed.

There are a lot of reasons for this failure - distraction, complacency, and fear, among others. But what matters right now is that I know I let myself down. Maybe I lied to myself about what I could reasonably accomplish, but I don’t think so. I think I actually intended to follow through with the things I posted about, and I really wanted to take my own advice, but in some ways, this blog was an extension of my “Fantasy Self.” I coveted the kind of life I was seeing other people living, yet I already knew how dangerous coveting was for me, because sometimes goal-setting made it impossible for me to be happy in the present.

I basically gave up on this project shortly after my post about goals because sometimes the simple act of researching new paths seemed to contribute to my discomfort with my present situation. I couldn’t focus on the daily responsibilities of my job when my head was constantly in the clouds planning the ideal next step. Also, about a month before that post, I started taking an anti-depressant (that topic deserves to be more than a footnote, so I may address it later). As my mood became more stable, my focus naturally shifted away from the future because I was less miserable with the present.

I entered a relationship that altered my priorities somewhat. I stayed in my career, despite knowing it was contributing to my unhappiness, because it was the path of least resistance, even though I absolutely had the perfect opportunity to change careers when I moved in with my partner in another city. Over the two years we cohabited, I became disillusioned about the feasibility of true minimalism and tiny living with a partner, especially given our (shared) profession. He maintained an interest in living small, yet we were ever surrounded by stuff in a small space. Neither of us made the necessary steps toward the lifestyle because “life” was always in the way.

I was depressed. I was in a spiral that kept getting worse, and my life began falling apart, piece by piece. My relationship suffered, which made me more depressed. Finally, in April of this year, I made the decision to quit my job at the end of my contract year. I didn’t have a backup plan, but self-preservation was my priority. I couldn’t live the way I was living anymore. What I was doing can’t even be called living. I was afraid of the unknown, but more afraid of being stuck forever in the same rut.

For better or worse, my relationship did not survive the tumult despite my hopes that leaving my job would allow me space and time to try to heal it. Fixing a relationship, of course, takes a team effort, and we both made decisions that took us in different directions.

So I made the humbling decision to go home at 30, so I can look for jobs in new locations and save what little money I managed to accumulate while teaching in one of the worst states for education in the whole country.

Having infinite possibilities feels oppressive in ways that I didn’t expect. But I’m at a turning point, where I can get real about the things I discussed four years ago, or I can succumb to more of the same. Here’s what I’m working with:

No real furniture, but assorted household items.

A collection of clothes and books that I could still stand to whittle down to only things that are really useful and worth keeping.

A cat, whom I will absolutely not leave behind.

I’m going to start over. Or maybe that’s not the right idea - starting over implies maybe doing the same things as I did (and did wrong) before. Rather, I’m going to try something new, and hope I get different results from last time. Maybe I will be happier, maybe not. Maybe I will end up completely broke and back on the same couch I’m currently sleeping on in what used to be my bedroom. What do I have to lose?

caithates

On the one hand, this seems like a message that every young person every PERSON needs to hear because it gives perspective.

But on the other hand, it’s completely impractical. It ignores the reality of life - which is that the system is rigged to work against those who would buck the system.

“Do what you love doing and eventually you’ll become a master at it and the bills will get paid.” But when? How long between following your dreams and being able to support yourself within a system that is based on nothing but money? Even if money is just an illusion, it is still the cornerstone on which the facade of Capitalism Is The Best And Only Way is built. Money and debt are still the shackles that keep us chained into this unhealthy, unhappy obsession with “making a life”.

In the end, someone still has to pay the bill. Because bills and payment are what our Society is based on.

Why do we send children to school to learn the same facts and take the same tests to tell how different they all are? I’m becoming increasingly more convinced that Education is being redesigned to kill creativity and independent thought. The people at the top of the Economic ladder keep coming up with new ways to “encourage” “21st century thinkers” - they keep feeding us new “tools” to make “better learners” - but each new method, each new benchmark, each new test just stifles learning and creativity and genuine thought even more. Why?

To force future generations into the the ladder. Specifically, to force the vast majority into the lowest rungs of the ladder so that those on top will remain comfortably in control. They do this by subjecting dreams to price tags, sacrificing talents to debt.

Money keeps people in line. It keeps them docile, malleable. …”Docile” means “willing to be taught or instructed” - it’s synonymous with “obedient” - in case you didn’t know. …The only people lucky enough to be able to follow their dreams are either so talented that they don’t have to pay for it, or financially secure enough not to have to worry about the cost. These people are few and far between. The rest of us must do something we don’t want to do. We can sacrifice our goals forever or for just long enough to get comfortable, but at some point we will be forced to play within the rules of the game.

Maybe the message of this speech should reflect that: “Do what you have to do just long enough to make what you want to do a possibility, then do that.”

Because the game is rigged and the winners are predetermined. And that’s a pretty damn hopeless thought.

Students as "customers."

Library-goers as "patrons."

Citizens as "consumers."

At what point did our language go so awry?

Precision-targeted marketing has reached creepy new heights. The next step in consumerism!

Jake Reilly's 'Amish Project:' 90 Days Without a Cell Phone, Email and Social Media

This! A million times, this!

I dropped off facebook for over 3 months last fall, and it was really eye-opening. I had way more time on my hands. While not nearly as extreme, I had to find new ways of communicating with my friends and family. I started sending emails, letters, texts, and phone calls as a way of keeping in touch. I found I like calling people more than texting.

I feel like we've lost something as a society as we've become more and more reliant on constant technological access. Suddenly, we know stupid details of near-strangers' lives, but we don't know how to make small talk on the phone. As Jake said, we make plans to see each other in person, but then spend that time attached to our individual gadgets. We're always connected, but it seems like no one knows how to personally connect anymore.

(And, yes, I recognize the irony of sharing this on social media sites like tumblr, fb, and twitter.)

I tried Martha Stewart's Tub Scrublast week, only I tweaked the recipe to use more dish soap and I used Seventh Generation to be more earth-friendly. It worked really well! You'll still have to scrub just like with any other cleaner, but you'll be able to do a better job of it because you won't be hastily swiping in an attempt to get out before you suffer brain damage from chemical fumes.

It rinses clean, and brightens grout. Definitely my new go-to bathroom cleaner.

dopalmine

downsizingandminimizing

Off-topic for this blog, yes, but important to note.

animalstalkinginallcaps

downsizingandminimizing

animalstalkinginallcaps:

YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN TO ME HOW A SET OF PORTABLE IPOD SPEAKERS THAT HOLD THEMSELVES TOGETHER WITH MAGNETS AND CHARGE OFF A USB PORT ONLY COST $21 INCLUDING SHIPPING BUT A POUND OF SHITTY BACON AT THE AVERAGE SUPERMARKET COSTS $6.50? I CAN BUY A 36” FLATSCREEN TV AT RADIO SHACK FOR LESS THAN THAN I CAN BUY TWO WEEKS WORTH OF GROCERIES.

I’M NO SCIENTIST BUT I’M PRETTY SURE MINING RARE EARTH METALS FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE GLOBE AND SHIPPING THEM TO FACTORIES IN UNDERDEVELOPED NATIONS TO BE ASSEMBLED INTO SHITTY FLIP PHONES HAS GOT TO COST MORE THAN PULLING LETTUCE OUT OF THE GROUND OR FEEDING A PIG.

Setting Goals

In the time I've been away from this blog recently, I've been getting back into the swing of things at work, and also thinking a lot about my future. One of the mindset changes I have tried to adopt with this project is that of living for today - not for tomorrow, and certainly not for yesterday.

I think there's a contradiction there, though. Part of living in the present is being cognizant of your goals and constantly working to achieve them. This is an inherently future-centered action. So I've been trying to reconcile exactly how to set achievable goals that will keep me evolving as a person, while simultaneously allowing me to live each and every day with present-focused purpose.

To say I've done a lot of soul-searching lately is a dramatic understatement.

All of the changes I'm attempting to make have been fueled by the fact that last year was the toughest of my life so far. When it came time to dig in and get back to work this summer, I finally cracked from the stress. All I knew was that I needed to make some changes, because I couldn't continue to settle for a life that was making me unhappy, simply because it was easier than taking scary risks to get what I want.

The thing is, no change can happen overnight. And drastic changes shouldn't be made on a whim. So I've started setting goals, giving myself what I think are realistic timeframes to complete them. I hope that this will allow me to be working toward a big picture future change, while still focusing on the present: what steps must I take today, this week, this month, in order to achieve each individual goal?

I also hope that while going through these steps, I might find new opportunities along the way. Maybe my big picture will change so much on the journey that it will be unrecognizable from what is was now, when I am just setting out. And that's okay! After all, this is about the journey to happiness, not necessarily the destination.

One might wonder why I need a "destination" at all. The fact of the matter is that my life is complicated by extenuating family circumstances that most people don't have to contend with. In a lot of ways, I feel as if I have a time limit for accomplishing some of the things I want in life. This may not be true, and I certainly can't predict where I'll be in 2 years, let alone 10 or 15, but it's something I have to keep in the back of my mind. Perhaps surprisingly, this has been inspiring to me: if I want something to happen, I need to go after it now, not next year, or five years down the road, or when I have "enough" money. All we really have is the present, right?

Over the last year, I started taking stock of my interests and noting lifestyles and professions that seemed intriguing to me. I came up with a some very broad, big-picture scenarios:

Homesteading/organic farming

Intentional communities focused on sustainability and minimal-impact living

Tiny houses and minimalism

Any or all of these things could be combined in some way (e.g. having a tiny house in an intentional community that is focused on farming and sustainability), but each one could take the better part of a decade to achieve. Up-front costs are potentially massive, and such drastic changes are daunting all at once. Thus, I started thinking about smaller-scale changes I could make in preparation on the road to achieving those things. For instance,

Minimalism isn't just getting rid of possessions, it's streamlining a life to only those things that are truly useful and joyous. To start, I began downsizing my things and trying to get the maximum use out of what I've kept.

Intentional communities thrive on having a diverse population, with a wide range of talents and skills to offer. I already have one skill, in the form of my current profession: I can teach. But what else might I be able to offer? I have an interest in bodywork, massage therapy, and natural healing. So I started looking into schools for those specialties. I found a really promising one in the city I hope to relocate to next summer.

I want to take better care of myself and explore alternative therapies, so I've begun doing yoga several times a week and learning about the body.

Learning actually is one of my main goals right now. I am trying to learn as much as I can about bodywork, herbal and home remedies, intentional communities, organic growing, minimalism, and locations where I might be most likely to succeed in these ventures, to name a few. Right now, educating myself, enquiring, and making connections is the best I can do.

It's been and will be a long process, and sometimes doing all this research actually makes me feel almost homesick for a life I've never had. But overall, this process of self-evaluation and planning has made my day-to-day life more exciting. I have goals again beyond just surviving another day or week at my job. I feel like I have direction.

What are your goals and how can you go about achieving them?

#goals #minimalism #plans

staceyjoy

Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness, possesses you.

Mildred Lisette Norman (via staceyjoy)

#true facts

The above quote is from a news article "Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness" (linked). While the research covers a huge spectrum of mental and neurological disorders, many of which require ongoing medical supervision, I would like to focus on the statistic about depression.

A reader might chalk it up to the excuse that the rising number is the result of more frequent diagnosis, or even over-diagnosis. And in some respects, that might be true. More people are being diagnosed as depressed. But why?

Are people in Western countries more depressed than ever before?

I think the answer is Yes. It might be easy to point to the recent economic downturn and global financial crises a as major source of stress and malaise, but that only looks at the symptoms. There is a big-picture disease behind our recent economic woes: a Western global trend, following America's example, of excessive consumerism and marketing.

If you haven't watched The Story of Stuff* yet, now would be an excellent time.

Ms. Leonard succinctly lays out how the mining-production-consumption-disposal chain works, but for my purposes I'm focusing on the part that begins after 10:10 on consumerism and marketing.

She uses a chilling 1955 quotation from retailing analyst Victor Lebow:

"Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."

She goes on to say around the 15:15 mark exactly what I'm getting at: "What's the point of an ad, except to make us unhappy with what we have?" People (i.e. consumers) intentionally have been trapped in a loop of consumption-planned & perceived obsolescence-disposal-consumption that's whole purpose is to make us miserable so we'll buy more stuff.

So why are people more depressed than ever? Probably because we've been tricked by marketing into thinking we need things we don't! But we don't realize it!

Most people can't see that the drive to have the next "great" item is making them miserable. They can't seem to put their finger on it, but they've been duped into thinking that they need something, so they either go into debt buying it, work hard to earn the money for it, or pine away for it. Then once they have it, they find that the satisfaction is only fleeting. Maybe the thing breaks (planned obsolescence) or the next "great" new thing comes out (perceived obsolescence), and suddenly this once-coveted object doesn't provide happiness anymore. In fact, it might even be a source of unhappiness, since now it is taking up space or needs to be discarded.

Why else might people be unhappy?

Perhaps because they are working more (if they're lucky enough to be working at all) in unfulfilling jobs in order to earn money to buy stuff they've been tricked into wanting. Or because they're working some of those retail or service jobs that pay minimum wage and don't offer benefits, so they struggle to make ends meet and still covet those needless things that are marketed to them 3000 times a day on average.

Do you see the connections? Wanting stuff we don't need leads to unhappiness. Marketing is how corporations have made us perpetually unhappy so that we will buy more things to try to become happy. Then they make us unhappy with those things so we'll buy more useless things. It's a cycle that we can't win because it's designed by casino rules.

So how can we start to become happier? By breaking the cycle.

Remove marking and temptation wherever possible.

Stop purchasing things that are designed to be obsolete - look for quality products and styles that are classics rather than trends.

Quit the job that is unfulfilling. If you are keeping it just because it offers benefits like healthcare, look for a new job and become an advocate for healthcare alternatives and reform.

We shouldn't let ourselves continue to be depressed when the depression is created as a marketing ploy. We can find happiness in simpler pleasures, enjoying our work and feeling satisfied in the daily accomplishments that provide for our own well-being (e.g. growing food, connecting with nature, exploring low-impact lifestyles, etc.) if only we make a conscious decision to remove ourselves from consumerism one day at a time.

Think about it: before the consumption-driven economics of the latter half of the 20th century came to be, people lived simpler lives - some farmed, some worked in services or trades. They didn't have office jobs. They worked to provide for themselves and their families. They grew food, made things they needed, and generally were content.

The truth is that Western views may never change in my lifetime, and I may never escape the cycle altogether, but I can try to make a difference in my life and the environment around me. I can change for myself. We can elect not to be driven to despair by a system that wants us that way and thrives because of it.

*The Story of Stuff Project released Ms. Leonard's annotated script, including references to her bibliographical sources, for those wondering about the facts and statistics presented.

Here's a great counter-article for anyone who enjoyed my Downsizing Relationships post.

7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less

These all sound like fantastic services. Time to get involved in one locally.

simplifyyourlife

downsizingandminimizing

simplifyyourlife:

OWNERSHIP BECOMES A BURDEN AS TIME GOES BY.

In societies saturated by hyper-consumption, the joy of acquiring, of holding the new object in your hands and knowing with satisfaction that it’s yours, is familiar. Equally recognizable, though, is that creeping anxiety when the sheen starts to fade and your mind gets distracted with a new, better, life-improving version, and at this intersection, ownership becomes a pain, a burden.

The product’s value becomes outweighed by concerns of maintenance, optimization of use, and finding a good home for your once-loved product, be it through recycling or re-use. This cycle seems to be becoming ever-shorter, especially in the Western world where gadgets rule and electronics are designed to fail, and both people and businesses are developing strategies to deal with the highs and lows of ownership.

This came from a series of articles from Rich Radka called Models of Ownership (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). An interesting read.