26 July 2012

The fight against excessive consumerism

Yesterday I discovered a new blog that I now subscribe to in my Google Reader, it's called zenhabits. This led me to discover another blog, today, called Becoming Minimalist. I read this article about de-owning things and de-cluttering. And between these two new blogs I have decided that I really want to stop being an excessive consumer and I want to simplify my life by simplifying my possessions. This decision comes at an opportune moment. In about month I am once again moving (this time merely to a new apartment in a better location) and so I have time to de-clutter before I have to pack up and move. And really, the fewer things I have to move the better.

When I moved out of Utah at the end of 2010 my dad had to come bring the family minivan to help me get all my stuff back to Arizona. When I moved to DC a few weeks later it all fit in my little four-door compact car, and there was room for my mother who helped me drive cross-country. When I moved to Boston in January it all fit in my car, but there wasn't room for anything (or anyone) else. While I lived in DC I made a conscious effort not to accumulate anything more than I really needed to, because I knew that it was a temporary place. But since I've moved to Boston I've not done so well at that (partly because I've acquired things like a bed, that will make this move with me, and because I once again have my bike--which might not fit in my car even disassembled and partly because I know I'll be here for at least a couple years). I would love to say that when I move next month that it will all fit neat and tidy in car, but I know that it won't because my bed alone will get one trip. And the bike will get another. But I'd really love it if everything else fit in one trip and if it fit easily.

So that is my goal: for all my possessions (minus my bed and my bike) to fit in my car neat and tidy and completely behind the front seats (in other words, so I can have a passenger too). And I tell all of you, because then you can hold me accountable to it.

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