I don’t know about you but sometimes I just look at my stuff and think I would love to chuck it all and start over. Don’t get me wrong, I suppose that is a little overboard. I wouldn’t get rid of everything, I do care for certain items but for the most part a lot of it is just STUFF. Yet it is stuff that we have acquired, and for some of these things we have paid a pretty penny and I regret they have not always been the most frugal choices.
I have this dream of selling our house and downsizing to the bear minimum square feet we could live in and still like each other. For those of you that have been reading here for any length of time know that we tried to sell our house once and it didn’t happen. However, I still would love too. Our mortgage is our only debt now, and I would gladly be willing to slash that in half. I would be more than willing to cut the amount of stuff we own in half as well.
I want to teach my kids that life isn’t about stuff, it’s about people. I want to teach my kids that there is a whole world out there ready for them to explore but I want to be able to take them there in person and not just visit them in pages of a book. I want to teach them how to give and not just get.
So I ask you today, if you were free from the strongholds of debt, if you were free from STUFF what would you do? Where would you go? What would you show your children?
[photo: debaird]
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Tanna, I shared your article on STUFF on my blog. Thanks to you and your commenters for more insight into our common stuff problem.
http://gotmyreservations.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/living-green-reduce-and-reuse/#comment-66
Nice post. I say hold that intention and it will happen. I know people who are doing this. As I am packing up 16 years worth in my current home, preparing to move, it’s giving me a opportunity to question: do I really love this? If not: Goodbye! I love that I am giving about a 3rd of it to charity.
We have zero debt and more and more financial freedom every year. Overcoming stuff is a daily part of our life and I accept it will continue to be so to some degree due to the culture we live in. Little by little we are learning that Simplicity + a spirit of Thankfulness = True Joy. Our favorite moments are not big trip memories to see famous places or explore the planet (and believe me, we’ve been around), but the moments we spend lolling in our own yard swing reading together or screaming around our own table as we play some crazy game together. Or tramping through our own woods and fields in search of frogs and bird’s nests.
You know. The Simple Stuff. It’s what dreams are made of.
I think just by removing stuff that would teach our children a lot. Our stuff is much…and removing is hard.
When I was 14 our house burned down. For a year I could fit all of my possession in a whiskey bottle box. That seriously changed how I view stuff – I would have probably become a hoarder had that fire not happened & taught me what stuff really matters.
My son & I live in a 725sq ft house – the one thing I’ve found as he is getting older is privacy is a big concern because he notices more now that he’s not a munchkin & at times it feels like we’re on top of each other – I guess that’s motivation for him to move out someday when he’s grown! It’s hard sometimes – although it could be more the floor plan of our house then the footage.
Regardless, if I didn’t need to put down roots in order to hold a job, etc… We’d be in a camper traveling the country. Probably go over seas once a year or now that he’s a big kid, might even spend a year hiking across Europe.
Also, we’d go to more performances – I really wish I could have gotten tickets to take him to Phantom of the Opera when it was in town and there’s have been some musical performances I so wish he could have experienced. I’ve gotten to the point I avoid hearing what’s going on in the performing arts scene because I know it’ll just bum out.
So sorry to hear about your experience and I bet it was life changing for you. In the end you want to make sure the people are ok not the Stuff. But it is still hard to loose those items. That’s why I am trying now to at least take a picture of some of the things I care for.
Although we live in a large house it feels as though we always occupy the same 100 sq ft., we are always together but I know that will change as the kids get older. If we were to make a major change I would want to make sure there is enough space for their privacy later on.
I totally understand with the performances. With a family of five it would be near impossible for us to all go together to a major performance but I know each child will be interested in different things so I could easily do a “date night” with each of them to do something they wanted and just take turns that way. My oldest is 9 and loves history I would like to take him to all of the local civil war battlefields which might bore the other kids. They might have to hang with the grandparents for those outings!
We are free from debt but not from stuff. I’m working on only keeping things that are truly important to us. Unfortunately my husband is a collector of many thing so it’s a hard job. I’d like to buy a travel trailer and go traveling but we’d have to pull a second trailer to take everything that my husband would need.
I would like to show my children that things are not the most important in life- but on the other hand, it’s good to take care of and respect the things you have.
Very true, there needs to be a balance. I do think the more kids have, they care less about their possessions and take them for granted.
My husband and I just returned last weekend from a wonderful 2 week vacation with our 3 year old twin girls. We got home at 1AM, extremely tired after flying on numerous flights. Interestingly enough we both had the same reaction when we walked in the door – “we have way too much stuff!”. Our girls immediately started playing with every toy they had since they had been “deprived” of their stuff for 2 weeks. It truly was an Ah-ha moment and if it wasn’t 1AM the stuff would have been put at the end of our driveway with a large FREE sign attached to it. We haven’t decided exactly what we are going to do with the stuff but we have placed a moratorium from buying any new toys/dolls/dress up things for a while. My children think they can tell mommy/daddy they want something and we will get it for them. This is not how I want them to be and it was definitely eye opening for us.
I do find it amazing to come back from a trip and realize just how little you got by on and then come home to a houseful of stuff you find little use for. As my kids get older and older they play with less things and really narrow down what they like. I could probably get rid of all but there favorite two sets of toys and they would be perfectly content. We keep more than we use because we have the space for it. Throw in an empty cardboard box every once in a while and they think it is the best thing ever!
This reminds me of that New England woman that kinda was a guru for the living simply craze about 20 years ago. In her neighborhood they’d declare a certain day and everyone would put out the stuff they did not want at the end of the drive for free. I’ve always wanted to do that. A lot of people don’t seem to get that concept. I think I’ve heard of this being done in East Nashville.