A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I set out to tackle the 100 Thing Challenge, outlining my thoughts here.
Well my self-imposed deadline has past and I’ve dropped the ball. Probably one of the things I should have gotten rid of.
Truth is, once I set out to ‘declutter’, I found the biggest task was finding things to actually give up. Turns out maybe I don’t have as much stuff as I thought – at least not mine anyway. 9 times out of 10 when I come across something, it’s more ‘family’ or ‘household’ owned than just me, personally.
I never got around to actually counting what I had and intended to keep – something I should probably do. However, as I was wandering my house, trying desperately to find stuff to unload, I kept stumbling into road blocks. Can’t get rid of the Christmas tree stand. We need that. Is that considered mine anyway?
Oh, here’s that broken rocker/glider that Lyn wants fixed. Can’t get rid of that. Even though we’ve moved it 3 times and still haven’t ordered the replacement parts. Sigh. Not. My. Call.
The things I have the most of, it seems, pose the hardest question, and that is tools. I have a lot of tools. Over the years I’ve accumulated them performing various projects on all the houses we’ve had. I always justified the purchase and ownership of them with the fact that I was doing maintenance/projects – that it would cost me double to have someone else do – myself, but the fact of the matter is that I also enjoy having my tools and being able to do the work.
Could I get by and old school it with all hand tools? Maybe. Could I just rent tools as I needed them? Prolly. The sense of security having them on hand at all times ready to do whatever is needed (or wanted) at any time is worth something though.
I have, many times, enjoyed the acquisition of tools, from time to time indulging in ones that would ‘make things easier’, or ‘take less time’ than their hand operated or out-dated predecessors. Is that a bit too much ‘consumerism’? Maybe. I think my original tenet that the tools are used primarily for the good of the entire household still holds the most water in defense of their line-item exclusion from my 100 Things List.
Clothes and bike stuff, I think I still need to work on though. I shan’t get into that now.
In the end, even reading the book and thinking about the Challenge has made me reevaluate how and what I buy, and why. So that is a good thing. I definitely use it as a yardstick now when buying anything.
In closing, I have rid myself of some stuff, though I STILL have 3 baby gates that I’ve tried to GIVE away to no avail.
But I used to have 4, so even THAT is progress.