I decided that I had one too many large tables this week thats primary function just served to collect plates and trash.
I got rid of it and sort of had an existential moment of realization. I'm scraping the barrel on minimalism. Last year I moved into a small tent full time. Downsized my bed to a cot, made my own solar system, pump my water, and got rid of all my trinkets and toys.
I just don't have much left to get rid of. Not much left to store or organize. No need for large tables, my smaller collapsable tables do what I need. All thats left is bare essential appliances, clothing, bedding, and daily use devices. just a little more I wouldn't even need a shelf anymore.
I feel free. Like a weight is being lifted off of me. Possessing means maintenance and emotional attachment to objects. Each thing I get rid of feels like a win, like I'm letting go of something that I didn't really need. The few things that stay I truly appreciate for what they provide me in life.
But I feel like I'm kind of weird for feeling these way. Its the societal norm to collect things, compare social status with objects, show off your ideaologoies and interest by decorations. The 'dream' for most people is a big home to fill with a spouce, kids, and things.
People get mad at the idea of 'pod life' and 'owning nothing and being happy', which I understand its about being g forced into poverty not minimalistic zen type letting go of attachment. But I personally feel like theres too much hoarding and consumerism in daily life.
I wish that nomadic minimal lifestyles were looked better upon by society and not equated to homelessness. I don't have any stuff tying me down I want to explore my country without monthly apartment rents in an old van. Why is that wrong? Because I'm not making taxable property income or stimulating the economy with constant purchase?
I loved reading your experience, there's a flip side that I've been experiencing in my life recently.
I have always been a minimalist and an anti-materialist, never really attached to "things" very much.
Late last year I decided to start getting into electronics and to do that, I would buy only broken things for the cheapest dollar, and then deduce and figure, and educate myself on how they work and how to repair them. It's a great way to connect to the memory of my grandfather who grew up in the depression, and taught me how to make things from nothing.
Anyways, a couple of critical things happened... I was out buying a $5 TV and as I was bringing it home, I saw the exact same TV in the dumpster next to my building. I took the one I purchased upstairs, and I couldn't escape the thought that I just bought something that I could have dragged out of a garbage can. So I did something I hadn't done before, and I went and picked it out of there.
That was a very educational moment because it taught me immediately that even two very similar televisions, from the same year, from the same manufacturer, can have different inverter boards and connectors and pinouts and everything's just a giant FU to hobbyists and the whole right to repair concept. It's sort of blew my mind coming from a place where I built PCs for decades and really had the PC mindset not general electronics.
That put me more into a salvage mindset, where I figured if I was going to learn how to cobble things together, I was going to have to get a variety of things, and deepen my understanding.
And this sort of addiction, I can honestly say, started to form for salvaging and scrapping discards. I started to make a point of passing by dumpsters on my way back from grocery. I started to drag all manner of electronics and shit out! Record players, amplifiers, stereos, speakers, fans... What the hell I thought to myself, there's just free junk everywhere?!!
I started to repair and have so much fun, and I guess I succeeded with my plan of just gathering crap to learn the hobby! Most of the things I ended up working on and fixing and playing with weren't even the stuff I planned on, but it expanded my horizons so much.
On I go lol...
Eventually I crossed the mental threshold of going from hard plastic and metal electronics that really couldn't have pests on them, really just dirt...., to other types of materials and things I would never have considered even touching next to a dumpster. All of a sudden I started to realize so many things that I paid money for, were literally just sitting there like dressers, shelves, carpets, lamps, quality cookware, all kinds of stuff!!! And I am not talking about some beaten-to-rat-shit stained piece of garbage, I am talking about new items that you cannot literally understand why anyone would dispose of.
Some items are notably filthy, like the brand new Xbox that had banana peels on it, guess they didn't know you could fix an HDMI output. They live a block or two from me and they pay $4,000 per month rent for the exact same square footage I pay $1,000 so I guess there you go. My point is, not one thing enters my zone before being cleaned within an inch of its life because I'm aware of the potentials. I have other routines as well that are not germane to this comment. It needs to be said though, because if anybody's taking inspiration, you need to be deadly serious about pests.
I just got a $600 Dyson vacuum because they didn't know you could clean the motor filter. $4,000 of solid wood furniture because the posts fell out of the shelving and they couldn't be bothered to just stick them back in or glue the ones that were loose. A boombox that makes the new gen Bose SoundLinks sound like talking greeting cardaf rom Hallmark by comparison - by this point I've learned enough electronics that I added in a Bluetooth board from a salvaged shower speaker, powered by lithium ion batteries salvaged from disposable vapes, and now this thing rocks my block! It's all garbage!!
I found a painting that I've discovered was once "worth" $4,000. My apartment is filled with the most beautiful Italian glass, people pay for it on the local boards upwards of $80 per piece and it's just laying in garbage cans. All the art on my wall is classic record covers and sleeves when people move out they just leave their collections and boxes. Today I got a fire extinguisher new in box and outer wrap, a NIB powered precision screwdriver set with tamper-proof torx bits, a NIB 1 lb camping propane tank full... It's lunacy my friends.
I started to just give things away. I collect things just to take them home, clean them, and give them to the next person so they can give me something cool back.
I don't ever feel the need to go out and buy anything other than food now.
I have realized that literally every single thing that I need in the world can just be picked up by walking over and getting it. It requires a different mindset which means you have to have a continual mental list of things you need, and you just have to know that the lottery machine of life is going to pay off and you just mentally took them off as you grab them.
So it's been a way to have amazing stuff in my life for the first time ever, not feel attached to it and feel like I can throw it all away right now, and just get it all again tomorrow if I want. I never have to put my stuff in boxes and move again, it's just going to go in a heap.
No matter what I pick up and salvage, I find something better a week later. I now have a four 55-in televisions and I do not even watch TV. I literally do not ever turn them on. Unless I need to watch a video on how to fix a TV like the one I just turned on. An Xbox, a PlayStation, a Nintendo handheld, a Harman Kardon complete amplifier system, a complete surround sound set, a complete karaoke set. It's an absolute embarrassment of riches from garbage. That's not even half of it.