Yesterday I had another package arrive that I did not take into account due to the system I had in place already. The package that arrived were some replacement parts for my quadcopter that I crashed into the ocean. I purchased 4 ECS boards and 4 motors. I have a total of 8 items to eliminate to break even. I am starting to see how quickly I can accumulate things. Obviously, I have two days of things that have arrived in my house so my spending habits still need some work. And I forgot that I bought two more items tonight. I bought a book(shoot me) and a tool as I am working on salvaging an old hard drive on my Macbook Pro and I also purchased an ebook on how to write and publish a book.
My total is 11 which is like WOW! What am I doing? As I continue to chart my purchases and work on eliminating items I am really not able to hide and fool myself into believing my habits are not so bad.
Today is proving to be the most challenging so far and way more challenging that I anticipated. I am struggling to find things to toss in my house even though there is probably plenty. I currently have 23 items up for sale on eBay, but those don’t count unless they sell and I mail them. I have several packages ready to be mailed, but with three kids fighting and in some sort of mood I am not about to take them to the post office to mail them off. This leaves me coming up with things to toss that are garbage and not worthy of selling.
So far I have come up with the following and some in which I feel like I will regret later on. I tossed
2 pairs of Chuck Taylor shoes that I have had since high school. I might wear these once a year so it is not like I don’t have enough shoes. There is just that nostalgia to them that good old worn out chucks have that no other shoe can possess.
5 hats(one not pictured) – I tossed two visors that I never wear and cannot remember the last time I actually wore a visor with my bald head. I really don’t know how I came across these or why I bought them in the first place. I also tossed three baseball caps from my glory days. My good old Arizona hat that Amanda loved on me when I was in college. It has seen better days. I have an old white ND hat that I never wear because I hate the way it feels after being washed. Last, a golf hat that I don’t know how I came into possession of it, but I never wear it so out it goes. As much as I hate to toss these items I type this up and realize that I don’ t really need them.
Next up was a poster book report Aiden made in school this year. Perhaps I kept it because he actually put time and effort into something at home and I wanted to preserve it, but we don’t really need a book report from 3rd grade. What will we ever do with it? Nothing. I have pictures saved to my computer so that is where it shall remain.
Last, I have tossed four more pairs of shoes that I had in the garage for mowing. Nobody needs four pairs of mowing shoes. I downsized to just one pair that actually look almost brand new so those I will wear the rest can go.
That puts my total to 12 but with my 11 item purchases that arrived yesterday I still have to come up with a few more. I need at least two more items to make the 3 item cut. I will have to look around and see what else I can toss. In the meantime I need some stuff to sell on eBay with the quickness to make life easier on this voyage.
Okay so in order to make this experiment work I am going to have to dig deep to find the power to get rid of things that I think are important to me. Maybe they are, but it is the memory that is important, not the physical object. What is nice about they physical object is that it can remind you of certain events that you have since forgotten. Did you forget because it is no longer important? Did you forget because you wanted to forget? Or can the brain just not retain that much? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I know that today when I opened the massive container of Aaron memories I came across things that I forgot about. To reach my goal today I tossed three more things. I tossed a bowling path, a bowling trophy, and my high school graduation cap. All three are important memories, but I don’t need the stuff to remember. They have sat in a container for years and have never been touched or looked at. So why do I keep them? I don’t know, but today is a start where I need to begin to purge my house of items that no longer need to be. This will be the hardest part as I continue to explore not only decluttering my physical objects, but memory lane, and who I have become over time. I don’t bowl anymore so being a good bowler is no longer important to who I am today. Yes, it played a role in shaping me, but I cannot connect the dots or anything else. It is one of those paths you explore and eventually shut down as you find a new path to explore.
This whole day of work put me at +4. It was the toughest day yet, but I made my goal!
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