My husband & I often sit & ponder about a post apocalyptic world, call us morbid but we do. My husband, who works in emergency situations every day, actually gets excited about the thought of it…..that’s assuming he survives. All I know is that the human race cannot continue the way it has, with all the waste & all the destruction. Sitting here in our ulta modern, energy efficient one bedroom apartment, I realise that every piece of clothing I have on today is second-hand from eBay (except for the underwear – I draw the line at underwear). They’re all items that people didn’t want anymore & they’re all perfectly okay – in fact they’re better than okay.
We waste so much & we buy so much crap that we simply don’t need. The big house; the investment property; the cars; the plasma TV; etc etc. Prior to living here in Melbourne my husband & I were caught up in the great Australian dream of owning our own home, going without & piling any extra cash we had into our mortgage - & for what? When you realise just how slowly you’re paying it off & how much money the bank is making off you it’s heartbreaking. So now we rent, & we don’t even have a car anymore. I have to admit that we have been fortunate and we have bought & sold at the right times.
We are strictly minimalist now, no nick-knacks or do-dads which serve no purpose. Any time we go to buy anything we ask ourselves “do we really need this?” I can now look at nice things & appreciate them but I don’t feel I need to “own” them. It has taken some getting used to but the only thing I miss is having pets (I don’t miss the mess though). One thing that was instrumental to this process was reading John Naish’s book “ENOUGH: breaking free from the world of more” – I recommend it to anyone who wants to free their lives of unnecessary clutter.
We waste so much & we buy so much crap that we simply don’t need. The big house; the investment property; the cars; the plasma TV; etc etc. Prior to living here in Melbourne my husband & I were caught up in the great Australian dream of owning our own home, going without & piling any extra cash we had into our mortgage - & for what? When you realise just how slowly you’re paying it off & how much money the bank is making off you it’s heartbreaking. So now we rent, & we don’t even have a car anymore. I have to admit that we have been fortunate and we have bought & sold at the right times.
We are strictly minimalist now, no nick-knacks or do-dads which serve no purpose. Any time we go to buy anything we ask ourselves “do we really need this?” I can now look at nice things & appreciate them but I don’t feel I need to “own” them. It has taken some getting used to but the only thing I miss is having pets (I don’t miss the mess though). One thing that was instrumental to this process was reading John Naish’s book “ENOUGH: breaking free from the world of more” – I recommend it to anyone who wants to free their lives of unnecessary clutter.
3 comments:
I agree with you...I am still in the trap though (slowly working my way out). Lately I have been able to look at the pretty things but leave without buying. I am in the process of de-cluttering my life. I think the wedding has been instrumental, a catalyst to being freed; I feel it is more important to our development as humans to live simply rather than be in a race for accumulation. It doesn't help that I work with pretty things and even make them.
I'm a work in progress too Jan. I still indulge myself with things I don't need all the time. One thing I can't wait for is for Kindle's to be available in Australia - I get most of my books from the library but I still have a habit of buying new releases.
forgive me for sounding so sanctimonious!
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