Merry Christmas! Here I am up before the rest of the crew looking to work out something that has been lurking in my life for a long time.
While Christmas shopping the last few days, I have been haunted by the thought of stuff. For years I have felt bothered by the amount of stuff available to us. For whatever reason this bother I have felt has been growing of late and, somewhat fittingly, I have decided this Christmas morning to commit to a great purge of my own personal collection of stuff.
The week that follows Christmas is known by some as ketchup week, and I will be using the ketchup week of 2009 to take the big box from my son’s largest present to collect all of my kipple and other belongings and begin a serious shedding of materialistic weight.
I have a bit of a head start in that when I moved to Spain in 2002 I came over with my road bike and a big duffel bag and that was it. I left some belongings back in storage in Canada but the bulk of that is taken up by a dinner table and futon plus gear for a small apartment (kitchen stuff and a few other essentials). Since I have come here I haven’t bought up too many things other then clothes and books. Unfortunately kipple – by definition – just seems to happen.
Some ideas as I get started:
- Only two large towels and two hand towels for me.
- Shoes is a tough category, I have a business pair, then casual, a pair for running, cycling and then hiking boots. This seems like a good limit I guess.
- Books: I have a large collection of unread books in my house and recently bought a Kindle. I will not buy another paper book unless its a must read and not available on the Kindle. I have a large enough backlog as it is, if its not yet digital and I don’t have to read it now I can wait until it becomes available in digital format.
Okay, time to get to work. I think I will update this post as the process unfolds during the week.
Update (16/01/2010): I’m still sorting out my stuff. I have been acutely impaired by the fact that little of it consists of personal items, but rather more household items. A bit harder to deal with as it involves not just myself but my wife and son. I think I will post a summary once this process is completed.
