From downshifting to downsizing. It turns out, my unused helmet and entire miniature car collection weren’t the only things I got rid of.
I held a garage sale and sold some CDs, VCDs, DVDs, VHS tapes (yikes, I had been keeping them even though my VCR was broken), books, magazines (a lot of them. Really, let’s just say, you could make a 1:18 scale of the Petronas Twin Tower out of my mags), toys, artworks, a bit of furniture, Home Theatre satellite speakers (still in box!), cables and wires (they were in my tool drawer doing nothing), music sheets, wall plugs and screws (which I bought a bag full at IKEA and only used a pair – talk about a waste of resources!), t-shirts (which I got every time I attended seminars or workshops, and which of course, I wore only once) and some knick knacks.
The ones I could not sell, I gave it away. Yeah, that’s right, buyers should’ve waited until I thought I couldn’t sell.
But what does all this downsizing come to? Realization. All this while we’ve been hanging on to our stuff because we are clinging on to memories – of a person, of a place, of an experience. But once we let the clutter go, we are no longer tied to the past. We can now look forward to the future, while focusing on the present. We begin to realize what is essential, and what is not in our life.
Funny thing is, I never miss any of the stuff I got rid of, which means they were not essentials. I never needed them. Why I bought them in the first place is beyond me. Why I kept them in the house under lock and keys is really disturbing.
No comments:
Post a Comment