A big topic these days for folks is downsizing their lives (at home), and how to get to a minimalist lifestyle. I agree that if you have too much stuff and it is sucking the life out of you, then yes, get rid of it, but I am proposing a much more important technique when it comes to downsizing, and I am hoping it revolutionizes how people think about downsizing.
As an example of this new concept, say you walk into a store and you see an awesome new tablet computer that you are sure will help you wow your neighbours, make you irresistible to women and help your internet experience be that much better, remember these simple words, “You don’t need it”. (YDNI)
3 planes that are orthogonal to each other
The reason I call this revolutionary concept Orthogonal Downsizing is that it is the opposite to downsizing (or perpendicular to the downsizing plane of existence), if you never buy all this stuff, you don’t have to worry about downsizing (and you have the money you didn’t spend, but that is an obvious side effect).
If you stay on the Orthogonal Downsizing plane of existence you have the added benefits of:
- Not having your basement full of stuff that might catch fire and burn all your nice stuff (and maybe you).
- You won’t have to pay rent on a storage unit, because you have that much stuff, that it doesn’t fit in your “Stuff Holder” (be that your house, apartment, parents’ basement, trunk of your car, etc.,). I am not sure which industry has a faster growth potential, Pay Day Loan places or You Storage Units, but I digress.
- The danger of being crushed to death by a pile of stuff you no longer use, when it falls on you is diminished a great deal.
- The word downsizing isn’t needed in your vocabulary (you can replace with a cool word like Orthogonal).
Is YDNI the New YOLO ?
If you want to get YDNI tattooed on the knuckles of your right hand (or your spending hand) this might slow down that urge to buy the deluxe cheese straightener that you feel you simply must have, or the granite mortar and pestle set to make sure your curly basil is prepared in the correct way.
Seriously folks, stop buying crap, and if you rent a storage unit, you are in trouble and need to get rid of stuff.
Sigh… I have too much stuff. AND two storage lockers. Need to declutter big time, let alone get rid of crap! Problem is I am a worse salesperson than anyone I know. I can barely be bothered to put stuff on Craigslist/Ebay. I have a ton of stuff just waiting for me to take pics to be able to sell the stuff, but just haven’t been bothered enough.
I am sure it stems from not having stuff when I was a kid, so it is psychological in nature, but getting from knowing it and doing something about it is where my problem is. Don’t know what to do about that though…