Why I Blogged a Tweet

Daniel — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:14:47 +0000

On Monday I posted the following:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” -Antione de Saint Exupéry

All 135 characters of this quote fits snugly into the 140 character limit of Twitter, but instead of just tweeting it (which I did), I blogged it.

I think it’s fairly obvious why, but at the risk of having excess I will explain. I had a whole blog post centered around the quote, but the rest wasn’t an improvement on what he wrote, it was excess.

All I can say is that throughout our lives we surround ourselves with excess, excess house, excess car, excess cable channels, excess words in a blog post. And all of this excess only leads to more excess; electricity bills, gas bills, cable bills… We live highly inflated lifestyles believing that these things make us happy, but the feeling of happiness is fleeting, takes us off track, and leaves us wanting more. Our car is no longer the latest and greatest, so we trade it in for another, a bigger/slimmer TV comes out so ours is already outdated, our wants turn into “needs” and we truly think of them that way. When this happens we lose focus of the little joys that make us happiest; things like watching the sunrise, reading a good book, meditating, and spending time with loved ones.

I won’t proclaim to have the answers to perfect happiness, but I would bet that it starts out by stripping away the excess in our lives.

The Case For Less

Daniel — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:26:39 +0000

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” -Antione de Saint Exupéry

The End of Stuff

Daniel — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:56:25 +0000

In my last post I wrote about a few of my fears, mostly irrational (like my fear of having to walk up a non-moving escalator), but I didn’t touch on one of my greatest fears…the accumulation of stuff.

While stuff may be the most vague word in the English language, I think everyone knows what I’m talking about. Stuff is usually accumulated over time, we get stuff in the form of event t-shirts, “stocking stuffer” gifts, good deals we can’t say no to, hand-me-downs, or my favorite “stuff we hold onto in case we might need it again someday.” In many instances this “stuff” triggers a memory which makes us feel attached to it.

I tell you this because I accumulated a lot of stuff in my life. In fact my mother encourages it, she calls them “memories,” and she refuses to throw anything of my “Memories” away. Regardless, I never really thought I had a problem until I got rid of it all. This magical day came when I packed up my stuff after College graduation. There was no way I could get it all in my truck so after much debate (and the fact that I was broke) I sold all my furniture, donated all of my “stuff” to charity, and packed everything else into my truck. At that point in time I had never felt more free in my life. I didn’t feel like anything was tying me down, I could drive anywhere I wanted to and start anew. I got a rush from that feeling, and so I’ve chased that feeling.

Now that Mary and I own a house, this is a much harder feeling to chase, because, as a matter of fact, I am tied down. But as a result of my moving experience, I’ve made a conscious decision not to accumulate stuff we don’t need. I don’t want to become one of those guys who can’t even park his car in his garage because the garage is used for storage of stuff.

Here are some basic steps that I’ve found helpful in getting rid of stuff, making a few bucks in the process, and avoiding the accumulation of stuff:

Say No to SWAG. I was at a financial conference a couple of weeks ago, and on the exhibit floor there were hundreds of booths where everyone was handing out SWAG (Stuff We All Get), the conference even provided everyone with a backpack to hold it all. As I walked around without the bag people were amazed that I wasn’t carrying it, after all where would I put my SWAG? When people would question me, I turned with a smile and said “I travel light.”

If you won’t use it, don’t get it. This goes for everything. I used to not be able to turn down a good deal, even if I didn’t need it, in fact much of the stuff I gave away when I left College was stuff I got a great deal on and never used. This also goes for FREE stuff. My parents were shocked this weekend when Mary and I got a nice hand-me-down chair from them, brought it to our house, couldn’t decide where to put it, decided we really didn’t need it, and took it back to them.

Be Realistic. If you haven’t used something in a long time, you probably won’t be using it any time soon, sell it! If you don’t know what is in “that” box, you don’t need it, sell it! Also, if you need something for a project, and you’ll only be using it once, rent it or borrow it, don’t buy it.

Stuff is NOT a memory. Your memory will be there even after you’ve sold your stuff. If you are really worried, take some photos, then sell the stuff.

Don’t rent a storage locker. If you get to the point where you have that much stuff, have a massive garage sale, because the storage locker is just not worth it. If you have one right now, when was the last time you were there? Do you even remember what is in it? Would you REALLY miss it if it were gone? Storage Locker companies suck you in with the cheap first month, then they gradually raise the price because it is such a pain to move all of your stuff. My parents had a storage locker for 10 years, they did it out of the goodness of their own heart, because my brothers and I got a lot of free furniture as a result, but in reality, we would have been much better off selling the furniture, investing the money, and not spending the $10,000 + on a storage locker.

Stuff won’t make you happy. Lets face it, it really doesn’t, at the end of the day it’s just stuff. Stuff doesn’t love you, and you shouldn’t love it.

Young and Frugal » Stuff

Why I Blogged a Tweet

The Case For Less

The End of Stuff