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shotgunshooter3
Senior MemberPosts: 6,002 Senior Member
Living Minimally (in regards to possessions, appliances, etc)
shotgunshooter3
Senior MemberPosts: 6,002 Senior Member
Or perhaps minimizing clutter is a better way of putting this.
I have somehow managed, despite being single and living on my own with a few transient roommates here and there (of the coworker variety, get your minds out of the gutter), to amass a 2 bedroom house and about 1/4-1/3 of a 2-car garage full of a lot of stuff. Much of it never gets used or sees the light of day.
Coincidentally, it looks like I'll have the chance to sell the house soonish and start looking at relocating. With this in mind it looks like a good opportunity to get rid of a lot of junk and shift my lifestyle to a more "minimal" style. Obviously one of the first steps is to start donating, recycling, selling, or just leaving at the curb anything I don't use regularly. With the exception of my gun collection and a few sentimental odds and ends this will definitely happen.
What I'm turning to this thread for are some ideas one how to reduce the sheer quantity of stuff you actually use. A great example is instead of having a huge set of kitchen knives you buy one extremely good kitchen knife of general use size and wash it after every use. This is the kind of shift I'm interested in.
So with that in mind, what other ideas exist? Some of mine are as follows:
- One extremely high quality kitchen knife to replace an entire set
- Reduce dishes, cups, mugs, etc to the amount to serve the maximum amount of people you will have at once in the foreseeable future
- With the advent of laptops work off of your kitchen table instead of having a dedicated desk
- Go paperless for bills, etc
What are some other ideas y'all can contrive?
I have somehow managed, despite being single and living on my own with a few transient roommates here and there (of the coworker variety, get your minds out of the gutter), to amass a 2 bedroom house and about 1/4-1/3 of a 2-car garage full of a lot of stuff. Much of it never gets used or sees the light of day.
Coincidentally, it looks like I'll have the chance to sell the house soonish and start looking at relocating. With this in mind it looks like a good opportunity to get rid of a lot of junk and shift my lifestyle to a more "minimal" style. Obviously one of the first steps is to start donating, recycling, selling, or just leaving at the curb anything I don't use regularly. With the exception of my gun collection and a few sentimental odds and ends this will definitely happen.
What I'm turning to this thread for are some ideas one how to reduce the sheer quantity of stuff you actually use. A great example is instead of having a huge set of kitchen knives you buy one extremely good kitchen knife of general use size and wash it after every use. This is the kind of shift I'm interested in.
So with that in mind, what other ideas exist? Some of mine are as follows:
- One extremely high quality kitchen knife to replace an entire set
- Reduce dishes, cups, mugs, etc to the amount to serve the maximum amount of people you will have at once in the foreseeable future
- With the advent of laptops work off of your kitchen table instead of having a dedicated desk
- Go paperless for bills, etc
What are some other ideas y'all can contrive?
- I am a rifleman with a poorly chosen screen name. -
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Replies
Get a wife and watch your "Stuff" multiply rapidly to the point you may be close to reaching the limit and have to pay for yersef. :tooth:
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
That isn't the worst sales pitch I've heard for marriage, but it's up there
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
Another thing to think of is how often do you plan on cleaning stuff? Realistically. I have 3 thermos cups for coffee, not because I drink that much coffee, but because I don't always have the ability to do dishes every day. So rather than cleaning one or two items and letting the rest pile up in the sink, I just get extras. That way I can batch wash and get it all done.
As for kitchen knives, I use a medium sized chef's knife for chopping and an 8" butcher knife for slicing. Neither of them works well in place of the other.
Worked for me until I got a domestic accessory called a "wife"- - - - -the first time around, that was a disastrous mistake!
Jerry
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Yep. I was pretty proud of myself 'pre-engagement' that I could fit everything I owned in my one vehicle and move if needed in an afternoon.
Now? Moving would either take a large fire or 2 eighteen wheelers.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I like having lots of stuff better.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
My mom, jokingly, once told me that she would write me out of the will. My reply was something like "good, then I won't have to clean up your junk!"
Dad 5-31-13
my mom THREATENS us with getting the contents of the house.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
That special day you might use it is likely not coming.
Doesn't apply to you, but to those of us who've been through a divorce, they're pretty good for cleaning up clutter.
If they will hang on just long enough....
Dad 5-31-13
Yeah.
Will swap it for 10 empty Folgers plastic coffee containers and 5 empty Don Francisco's coffee cans. Can throw in a drawer full of used wine corks to sweeten the pot.
In addition to that, we recently moved to a smaller house, and had to give away a lot of stuff we had room for in the other house. We still have some of our stuff in plastic containers on shelves in the garage.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
― Douglas Adams
Are the Don Francisco fans metal? I have some vintage woven wire I need to unload.
ETA Plus a plastic Maxwell House coffee can of vintage rusty only used twice 16p nails.
Dad 5-31-13
Don't bother with all the legal hassles- - - - -just find a woman you can't stand to live around after a while, and buy her a house! You'll end up with nothing but the clothes on your back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyqe8n-pbqQ
:roll:
Jerry
I told her some years back “I ain’t moving from this house except for 2 things ... we have a catastrophic fire or I die ... and in the case of the latter cremate me and spread my ashes on the shady side of the pond where we have spread our animals ashes over the years.”
- George Orwell
Metal ones with plastic lids. The lids are cracked btw but fit loosely.............
:that::agree:
I *hate* buying something twice - or again and again and again...
Buy it once and be done with it.
Oh you may have a deal. Metal coffee cans seem to be getting scarce.
Dad 5-31-13
You can get Café Bustello in a metal can and it is pretty good coffee AND kinda sorta cheap.
Orchidman 'Likes'' this.
I dont care how much I am on the bones of my arse, life is too short to drink crap coffee. I normally serve the low quality stuff to guests I dont like and make myself a cup of the good stuff.
I have more than one coffee can full of slightly used nails I pulled from lumber that I was salvaging. Waste not, want not.
I come from a family of hoarders, I myself have a hoarding problem if I am not very careful. I draw a hard line at nails, I have straightened thousands before I got my own place. Dad would go so far as to reuse air gun nails.
Dad 5-31-13