Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Decluttering for beginners

My situation changes at the moment and I you want to let you know that I'm going to write less frequently here from now on. I want to focus on writing my book and an internship that starts soon. About once a week I will write a longer post on this blog. I hope you're as excited as I am about the book and that you'll stay tuned!

Minimalist living is like fixing a broken roof when it's raining. You can be busy carrying out water in buckets while the rain still keeps coming in. So what you've got to do first is to change your consumption behavior. My suggestion is: Do not buy anything except food and services until you've finished decluttering.

Since I first came up with the idea for my zero-thing-challenge I have been doing exactly that. I did not purchase a single thing. And I've got to admit that it's quite comfortable. Why should I pay money for something when I'm giving away my stuff anyway? What's interesting about it is that one might as well view life in general that way. We only own things for a lifetime. That seems long, but it's finite.

Anyways, after having stopped the inlet we need to take care of the clutter itself. I'd suggest you to minimize the effort and just watch out for opportunities:

"I like that dress you're wearing."
"It should be your size, you can have it."

I promise, it's going to be fun. You can also do that with CDs and books, it works really well:

"Do you know that song? It's The Doors, I love them."
"I've got L.A. Woman and Strange Days on CD, do you want them?"

"What are you reading at the moment?"
"I just finished Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda."
"I've heard Steve Jobs talk about that book. It was one of his favorites."
"It's great! Take it if you want to."

In a third step (after stopping to buy and seizing opportunities) you can occasionally sell stuff on ebay. I did that whenever I felt something was in my way and just taking up space. But then I did it right away. For me this worked better than trying to get rid of everything at once.

2 comments:

  1. "Do not buy anything except food and services until you've finished decluttering." this is key! :) excited to hear about your new book / job! although we'll miss your daily posts here!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remeber that the last conversation is one that we were having, anyways let me know if you ever want to read the Steve Jobs Bio.

    I love the idea of giving stuff you care about away. Yesterday I went to a friend's birthday party and I knew that he always liked an NFL Photobook I bought ages ago. So I gifted him the book. He loved it and I could give something away that I once held very dearly. It felt great.

    ReplyDelete