Having moved houses a lot over the years, I like to think I have sorted out and recycled plenty, but the truth be told, I have a house of stuff. It's often useful stuff that we use, yet there is plenty of it and it's everywhere.
Listening to one of my favourite podcasts, the phenomenen of stuffication was being debated, at length.
It seems that we are a society of buyers and hoarders. Each day we bring new things in to the house and each day we enjoy looking and finding sentimental items which we keep in our houses, because they provide an emotional attachment to something that we value.
The consequence is therefore stuff everywhere. Good stuff, but still stuff.
The question that the podcast was debating, was what constituted "modest consumption?"
I would like to think I am a modest consumer of many things, for example we only have one car which we seldom use, we cook many things from scratch and avoid plastic containers in supermarkets hosting fruit and veg, we often sell thing on eBay, we regularly remove items from our wardrobes, give a ton of stuff to charity shops and encourage the kids to have yard sales or stalls on flea markets. That said, we drive, we fly, we buy new clothes and buy things if we want them. We also throw things away, including food and we can be wasteful. So no on reflection, I am not a modest consumer at all.
Are you?
Are you conscious about your consumption?
Do you care?
Do you wish you were different?
One solution I loved, was the concept of a sort out in January. On Jan 1st, find one item to recycle/remove from your house, on Jan 2nd two, on Jan 3rd three and so on. If you consequently do this for the whole month of Janaury, you will succesfully remove 459 items from your house!! Got to be worth a try.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
Do any of you not suffer from this?
Was it a conscious decision and how does it make you feel?
Do let me know.
I've spent the last three years aware that at some point I will need to pack everything I have into two suitcases, If I buy something, then something must go. I also realised that I no longer needed the stuff I had left in my home country, so last summer I cleared out most of that too. This was both cathartic and liberating.
ReplyDeleteI also think that for a longer term solution to reduce consumption, you can focus on your waste. Initially although this obviously only deals with daily consumables, such as food and drink, and not the stuff we hoard, I think it can change your mind set on how you purchase. These two blogs provide exceptional examples:
http://www.zerowastehome.com/
http://www.trashisfortossers.com/