I’m with you on this. I’m also retired and wish to simplify my life. I’ve discovered, like Thoreau, that a person is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to do without. Too many Americans are caught up in mindless consumerism (my opinion) having to find the latest gewgaws, gimcracks, gizmos and gadgets. What a fraud. I also believe in general that the less people have within, the more they have without; i.e., tattoos and other body adornments, fishooks in nose, mouth, etc. I’ve never seen more people express their unconventionality in such a conventional way. Most morons ape other morons; they talk, look, act, and entertain themselves the same way.
Me too. I retired in 1999 and moved to South Carolina in 2003. Before I moved I gave away about 80% of my stuff.
Constant questions running through my head: What can I do to simplify my life? How can I use technology to simplify my life?
Never been happier.
For most of my life I was the type of guy that saved everything (because I might need it some day). Of course when you do that, you better have a good storage system in place. We never got to the point where we had tunnels in the house, but the garage was full, and every spare space was packed, and the house in general was cluttered.
Several years ago I decided I had to "simplify my life".
I actually hired a big construction dumpster for the first load there was so much.
The easy stuff went quickly, then began the hard process of letting go things that had sentimental value, which was almost everything.
Once the garage was cleaned up enough, I started inside the house. My technique was to quickly decide go or stay, the go stuff was put in a box, the stay stuff had to find a home. I then dated the box, sealed it up, and put it in the garage. If after a year I did not open the box looking for something, it went, unopened.
This process has taken over 15 years and there is just about nothing left. But it is a constant battle.
One of the hardest was convincing friends and family we really did not want gifts on birthday or holidays or from their vacation or Christmas. A card would be nice but that is all. A gift from a friend or loved one comes attached with emotional baggage that makes it difficult to get rid of later. If you don't accept it, you don't fill your home with more clutter.
I should note anything of real family history was passed on to someone in the family (and it becomes their problem)
It is like a great weight lifted off my shoulder. The only thing really important to us are the family photos, and I have scanned them and passed out copies to the family so even if I lose my copies, others have them.