Do you consider your life to be simple and what have you done to make it so?
Do you want a simpler life? What are you doing to achieve this?
I’m having no luck………..
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55 Comments!
I surely don’t have the answer.
I could use a less frustrating job, but that’s not gonna happen in THIS economy.
I need another week off.
For every item I cross off my to do list, five more pile on. On the bright side, I can’t remember the last time I was bored! I have a hammock chair that I bought at the fair last year. It is the most relaxing thing ever to sit in it with a glass of iced tea and my knitting … but so far this year I’ve only managed to do that once. It was very rejuvenating, though.
tried getting reinvolved with wood working, taking walks, fishing off the shore, etc. I just can’t. The key to happiness is getting rid of everything. maybe. I’m thinking of entering a cloistered monastary and wear a hair shirt. Except
Ours wasn’t simple for a long time. We had many non elective lives happenings going on at once. But now it’s very boring. Part of that is because we have no money to get us in trouble. Just the way we want it. There are still lives happenings no one gets away with not having any one never knows when the shit’s going to hit the fan again.
I am doing my damnedest to simplify as much as possible, but life keeps getting in the way!
I just found out my father has to have surgery to roto-rooter his carotids to prevent an imminent stroke…
Stop the world.. I want a cave to crawl into!
Heh, I invested the evening watching video clips from Big Bang Theory.
Doesn’t simplify anything or cure procrastination but makes me smile.
Don’t look at me. My life is not simple, and shows every sign of getting more complicated.
Need to get rid of “stuff”
Tired of maintaining “stuff”
Realized years ago going to the Carolina beaches and staying in a small, simply furnished rented cottage with nothing to care for except what we brought along in our truck (mostly bedding, some simple clothes, fishing tackle) that I had lots of time, read maybe four books in a week, went to bed early, slept like a log, settled into a contented, relaxed rut, mostly because I didn’t have much stuff to get out, put away, maintain, worry about, search for, piddle with, look for more for the collection or accessories to add to.
Currently, house is much too big for just two of us, we own too much “stuff”, have too many collections of crap we look at in passing but don’t use, too many rooms we seldom use, too much furniture we seldom sit or eat on
Too much “stuff”. But after a lifetime of accumulating this “stuff”, much of which is of a sentimental family nature, it’s really hard to cut it loose. Not to mention a bunch of work if we want to do it responsibly and in an economically sound fashion. But the sands are running out of the glass, and we gotta do it while we still have bodies and minds sound enough to do it.
dick, that is SO right and I hate that for you.
I am having to decide what is essential and what is not.
It is tough going through attached memories that warm and break my heart and seeing what is absolutely essential.
Gramma’s chamber pot, lid and all?
That MIGHT come in handy if the plumbing fails…. LOL!
We live in interesting times….
May we all survive these times with our sanity and faith intact.
At the height of the Internet boom, I seriously thought about quitting my job and going into IT. I weighed all the pros and cons and chose to stay here. My job has NO stress and gives me an obscene amount of free time while on the clock. Hell, I’m typing this while “working”.
I think you first have to define for yourself what the words “simple” and “complicated” mean.
For me “simple” means not needing everything to be perfect. Not fretting over details.
For me personally, “simple” also means having control over how often I have to interact with people.
Living in a city is very complicated in that respect.
CI…. life, I have come to determine, is NEVER perfect.
It is what we make of it from there that makes it what we need it to be. Living in the city?
I am trying to escape it ASAP!
Simple? I’m not dodging roadside bombs, and there is no wife nagging me!
I have all my bills on a spreadsheet and get them all paid on time.
However, I’m trying to start my own business, and having a tough time getting all the reams of paperwork figured out. It is the closest I’ve come to an Escher room.
Getting rid of stuff as fast as I can. For the most part, not regretting it later. In a lot of cases, what I wondered afterward was how I could have possibly thought I still needed it… recognizing that I can do better with much less. Stuff creates overhead, makes one inefficient, and slows one down.
The same is true for services… eliminating a lot of services for which I have been paying either monthly or annually. My original motivation was financial, but I’m finding that I actually don’t need a lot of them, at least for a time.
Ain’t no such thing as a “simple life.”
In order to simplify, you need to go though a few highly un-simple decades in order to be able to afford “simple,” i.e. to pay others to leave you with simple. (Then your spouse wants it, your hired help pilfer it, and things get all un-simple again.)
Heck, not even simple cults have it simple. Think of the complex rules they have to abide by in order to stay “simple.”
Okay, subsistence living is simple. All’s you have to do is find food and shelter every day. And stay out of jail or avoid the slave catchers.
Miserably cold & wet is simple; because your life simplifies to finding warm & dry.
Prison life is simple.
A coma is simple.
Being Larry is simple.
Take me. I just moved, and 70% of my “stuff” is still in boxes.
I can get along very nicely without it for a while, thankewvedymush. Actually, about 20% hasn’t really been unpacked since I retired, and I keep all the empty boxes for the next time I move. When I die, my executor is gonna kill me.
Simplicity is a ToDo list with most of the hard stuff ticked off.
Simplicity is knowing where your towel is. (In my case, literally.)
Amen I i d.
I am paring down as far as I can get!
I have to maintain my internet and cell phone, as most companies require online assessments and a contact number, but the rest?
If it is not necessary, it has to go!
Speaking of which ^ anyone know somebody who wants a brand new PTR-91 with about a half dozen spare mags?
(no, I’m not giving it away)
The really hard one for me is going to be the books. Besides several full book cases, I bet I’ve got 75 boxes* of books in a storage locker (for which I pay monthly). I want them all, and I have *got* to cut them to less than half…. :-(
* I estimate that with an average weight of at least 40 lb per box, that means I’ve got a total of *way* over 3,000 lb of books. Just moving them is…. well, you know.
The really hard one for me is going to be the books
Oh hear heavens. I just spent good portion of my day sorting through books.
I HAVE to save the bible signed by Reagan to my great aunt for her 100th birthday and my copy of Atlas Shrugged.
I have so many old books and they are so hard to part with. I have old medical texts that actually have some great common sense curs and some that are, now days, simply hysterical when read aloud with today’s knowledge.
I will see if I can find some for the kindle that someone so graciously gave me as that is a LOT easier to carry and I will be able to make a list and catch them as I can online….
books have been my friends for years.
MiT, I hear you. Not to mention that the only likely way for cheaper living space is for it to be smaller, and therefore have less stuff. One of my big deals this week is that I’m in the process of shrinking and organizing stuff enough to reduce my off-site storage requirements (and, therefore, the bill).
Although it wouldn’t work for a lot of people, I no longer have my own broadband line, which, together with other factors, will lead me to be posting here much less in the immediate future. I’m also looking looking at that cell phone bill and wondering about alternatives.
^(15) I in D Stuff creates overhead, makes one inefficient, and slows one down.
Bingo! And creates anxiety from the pressure to do or guilt over not doing whatever the “stuff” periodically requires, whether dusting, cleaning, lubricating, painting, caulking, insuring, finding, sharpening, reorganizing…. ad infinitum.
I think about my college days when I had very little material possessions, but a handful of friends and a body responsive enough to go do things with them; happy times, full of zest. Now my body limits what I can do and how long, and it seems all my time is taken up with details, and by the time I’m done with them, I’m out of strength or energy to do other things more attractive, and even when I do muster the wherewithal to venture out, I find my friends are all tangled up with their “stuff” and can’t go.
Thoreau had it right, methinks. Life is consumed with details…. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Dick (21): there’s so much I can relate to in what you just said that doing it in detail is prohibitive, but trust me we have some things in common here.
Speaking of guilt, I finally figured out that a lot of the stuff I had was there because:
1) I “should” have done more with it than I have, even though I can now see full well that doing so is impractical, and not how I want to spend the rest of my life. (As a matter of fact, if I spend time doing those “shoulds” I most certainly will not have time or resources for the things that I truly want to do before I die.)
2) I’m “supposed to” do certain things that I think everyone does; even though there’s no evidence that’s the case; and some of these things made sense in my parent’s generation, but not in my current life and circumstances.
…posting here much less in the immediate future...
Comment by Ironic in Denver — July 30, 2012 @ 10:18 pm
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…………..
Divorce and later a bankruptcy cause great turmoil but after it all settles down you realize how few “things” you need to be happy. Keep Jesus in your heart and the rest of life seems to have a bit more order and meaning, works for me.
MiT, prayers for your fathers quick recovery.
Doug, almost a year has passed after moving and the only things I needed that caused me to dig in the boxes were shooting related and cooking tools. I should just make a big fire and enjoy a beer while it all burns. On second thought, give the pile to someone that has nothing. And still have a beer later.
Having retired from a full and satisfying USN career followed by an equally satisfying university teaching career, I first decided to have a huge myocardial infarction.
The doc in smock standing over me when I woke up in ‘ospital told me that without major changes in my life style, I wuz gonna die, and prob’ly sooner than later.
A series of discussions, rehabs, and dietary changes then followed with a focus on reducing the following: stress, salt, fat, refined sugar, heat, and meat.
Looking over the exhaustive list of verboten stuff the rehab nurses (one cardio, one physio, and the third nutritio) bashed me over the head with, I decided to compromise and meet ‘em halfway by eliminating many (but not all) of the no-nos.
I mean, JHC, if you’re not enjoying being someplace, why stay there, right? And the dietary routine they suggested sucked canal water. Steak once every ten days and portion size no larger than a deck of playing cards? What’s the friggin point!
So today I do one project a day, like mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, washing the car, ‘cause absence of ALL stress for a personality like mine can be stressful.
Do about 20 minutes of very light free-weight exercise each morning followed by a 30-minute walk with Monsterdog.
And since I’m not s’posed to go outside in the heat of the day (which is around 0900 to 1700 between May and December here on the Gu’f Coast), I flit around beachcombing the cyber flotsam and jetsam.
Burn up quite a lot of energy writing song parodies, poems, rants, stories, and the occasional novel or novelette (some of which I foist upon my children, grandchildren, and unfortunate correspondents).
Tell Milady that she’s beautiful, rattle her cage from time to time, and stay the hell out of her way the rest of the time, occasionally ducking the hurled epithet, shoe, or side-face small-eyed dagger.
It’s easy when you’ve successfully navigated the treacherous strait between Charybdis and Scylla, slain the multi-headed Hydra, and found the right life partner carrying the golden fleece, especially when you’re living on time stolen from the penalties and fines of a self-indulgent youth.
Control/Alt/Delete is a good approach. Control your temper and your spending. Develop Alternate ideas and plans for seemingly insoluble problems. Delete the stuff that makes you apoplectic. And when things go wrong, which they occasionally will, try not to go with them.
For all of you who are wanting to downsize and get rid of stuff, I am in need of hundred dollar bills, gold coins, and classic cars. So if you have an abundance of any of these items, I’ll pay the shipping charges.
Thanks in advance.
Actually I have fired my doctor, changed a med from synthetic to a natural form which makes me feel noticeably better and gives me the goal of quitting the other two ‘scrips before year’s end. Though finding a new doc who understands what i am learning and will work with me is challenging.
I’ve started a business on a shoe string and am clearing and packing stuff so I can stain my own concrete floors, finally.
Oh, the business is in the off hours from my current purgatory. It’s fun to play with the numbers to decide what I need to reach escape velocity if the new enterprise takes off.
Here we go again from all walks of life and around the world everyone living life with similar situations. My answer to the “Stuff” when we down sized was I went thru each room and made 3 piles one to keep one to give (family first) and one to throw. The give and throw pile ended up being the biggest. I always have a donate bag and when that’s full we bring it in and start a new one. Don’t want my kids to have to go thru all of our stuff and wonder what to do with it all after we croak. I had to do that too many times for others just because they were so attached to their stuff. If we just can’t get rid of something there’s always the camp in the woods.
Pictures– oh my– 3 rubber maid containers full with albums in the basement, photo boxes in the living room and those framed on the walls plus over 10,000 in the computer. Have fun my leetle childrens.
Well, after reading all these I don’t feel so messed up.
Now, if I can just make it through another day at the largest adult day care center in WA, I’ll be fine for a few minutes, anyway.
Oh Sh*t, I’m running late……
blindshooter (24)
There’re three big boxes of stuff in the back of my car that will be dropped off at the charity place after my dentist visit this morning.
Maybe I need to figure out how to use Ebay.
Books? My next major move-in task is to erect the bookshelves.
(~120′ of packed shelves)
My life became simple and serene when a dear, dear friend started making raspberry jam and sending them to me! Cosmic!!!!!
Simple? What’s that?
It’s not so much the “stuff” for me……..it’s part of it but…
I feel like ( and am ) always in a freaking hurry………
^^^ you feel like it because you are^^^
^ geez stole my words!
…. but now what?
My Wife is like that, Constantly, like the Energizer Bunny. She’s going to Haus Edelweiss in Austria for two weeks starting Thursday, kind of an enforced slow down which will be good for her!
Oh wait, gone? Two weeks? Send Food!!!
First I retired, then decided to just let everything go to shit.
Sondra (35) I feel like ( and am ) always in a freaking hurry…
Well, productive people (such as yourself) are pretty much always busy…
… which (as I define it, anyway) is not exactly the same as being in a hurry, but still, it is a related experience. The question to ask yourself is whether you are happy with your hurry.
If so, great! … If not, then you might want to enquire of yourself why that is.
I’ve been both ways.
The things I noticed about the unhappy (understatement there) times were that:
a) I was over committed and need to think about my priorities.
b) A lot of the stuff I was doing wasn’t really good for me.
c) All of that – hurry, unfortunate priorities, not good for me – were really the symptoms, and that I needed to look deeper.
The things I noticed about the happy times were that:
a) I was focusing more on fewer things.
b) What I was doing was awesome!
c) I kind of got off on the adrenaline….
Of course, I might be over thinking your situation. Let’s not lose sight of what you’ve achieved just in the last six months or so>>> :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
^ BINGO!!!
Yannow what prompted this?
Been “neglecting” my porch here and spending too much time and energy on crap. Have been too busy to make my jam…
I LIKE our porch…and making jam..and hanging laundry on the line…
Gotta admit I’m having trouble accepting that The Asylum is only part time too and will be for a long while…but if I can simplify some life stuff I won’t be spending all my time there decompressing…then starting all up again when I get “home” scrambling to get too much shit done and dealing with too many life distractions.
Oh, well . . . since nobody else has posted it, here’s proof you ain’t alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAY1DeVimo
For me it was 1st a decision to “not care”. 2ndly I had to practice not rushing what I am doing in the moment is the most important thing I can be doing all else will wait, that took discipline. 3rdly I gave away everything I own short of my car, gun and some clothing ( got rid of every suit and tie). Then I asked God to bring it on.
^ This.
Jeff has a definite Buddhist list.
You explained how busy you were going to be and asked us to understand that you wouldn’t have as much time to spend on the porch and we understand. We miss you but we understand. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. :))
Don’t worry Be happy.
Didn’t think Buddhists believed in God.
Actually, Buddha said basically that he was not in any way divine and that we don’t really NEED gods, but that if belief in a god helps you sort things out or just makes you happier, then go for it.
Like most religions, Buddhism has various interpretations and sects, some of which consider their system a life plan while others trend toward the religious aspect. None have, tho, as far as I’ve seen, true belief in a god, although many consider the Buddha himself to be quite more than natural.
And Buddha, like many prophets and holy guys, said that love of stuff (material wealth) causes much of the anxiety and strife in our lives. He also posed, as did Jesus and several others, that we should do what brings satisfaction and joy into our lives as long as it does not interfere with the ability of others to have satisfaction and joy in theirs. That’s kinda neat, and I buy it.
Bocorpro: Thanks for the education. How I have trained my son is similar to your words. Son, I don’t care what you do as long as you are happy doing it, you don’t hurt yourself, and you don’t hurt others.
The Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” stems from Matthew 7:12 : “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
And of course Mathew 7:1 tells us “Judge not that ye be not judged.”
And though I can’t prove it, I believe that Jesus got his version of it from one of his contemporary rabbis, who was asked to sum up the entire Torah and explained it this way:
“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
Interestingly, Confucius said the same thing around 500 years earlier: “Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.”
Buddha was even earlier than that, around 560 BCE with his “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”
Even the Qur’an has a parallel: “No one is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
Of course Muhammad heavily plagiarized both the Torah and the New Testament, and very few Muslims today seem particularly interested in that particular surah as it has little justification for warfare and slaughter.
(51) + others: seems to me God keeps trying to tell humans something, and it is built into our wiring to pick up the message, but we are very slow to learn it.
Sondra, seriously: what geezerette said in 47. If you gotta choose between happiness and guilt, go with happiness. We are all applauding. (Well, actually, you’re a little bit inspiring, but don’t let it go to you head. It’s lib heads we want to see exploding, you know.)
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”
–C.S. Lewis
Cheer up. It’s almost garlic time.
1. Get rid of car (if you can).
2. Live about 4-5 miles from town.
3. Like what you do.
4. Do what you like.
5. Decide if you think Jesus was a liar, a lunatic or Lord of the universe.
6. Get a nice bicycle (and helmut with rear view mirror).
7. Get a nice dog.
8. Enjoy the peace that surpasses all human understanding.