Just recently the world feels as though it is ramping up to something urgent, as though there's something we need to do and something that if we don't do it, will make us slide off into a sea of oblivion.
When what we actually need to do is slow down, take a breath, regroup our thoughts ... and relax.
I completely understand the large and small businesses need to be selling to us, needing to up their profits year on year just to stay afloat. Being an ex-shop owner and shop manager myself I know the need to grow your business by at least 10% year on year ... but when does it stop?
It stops for each of us when we decide to ignore the hype, the sales patter and the need to be 'like everyone else'. It stops when we are happy in our own skin, happy with our own homes and happy to walk the path that we want to walk.
This final declutter of mine that is ticking over slowly but surely is making me very thoughtful.
There is less to get rid of this time around. There is not the keep one get rid of the three spares mentality this time, mostly because there are no spares. Instead this final time it's more thought provoking, in a strange way it's deeper and more final. It makes me question why I bought the items, why I thought I needed them and how would my life be better or worse without them.
It's enjoyable in a very strange but satisfying way.
But the more I whittle away at what I have, the more the adverts that are everywhere jar my senses, annoy my head and hurt my heart. There is talk everywhere of the earth having limited resources and the need for us to change and then there are the adverts that tell us we need this and that.
We have been talking about this too, Sue, and basically decided to keep decluttering, keep asking ourselves why we want something and then pressing pause before buying. Sometimes overnight what I thought was a need, transforms into a want!
ReplyDeleteI have definintely stopped my 'knee-jerk' response to buying books on Amazon, instead if there's a book I fancy I put it on my Wishlist and leave it there for at least a week ... there's been a lot fewer books arriving since I started doing this.
DeleteSomeone I know recently moved into a very nice rental. Her daughter didn’t like the new curtains and persuaded her to change them. Why I asked when she confirmed she liked them. I told her, her daughter wouldn’t be living there, she would. So she took them back and put up the ones that were there originally. Her daughter spends money like water!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you did her a big favour. It does seem to be the younger generation that want everything new and everything NOW doesn't it.
DeleteWise words my darling, wise words indeed.
ReplyDeleteLove your second image - and it amuses me greatly to wonder how many completely unnecessary businesses would cease if women learned to love the incredible, complex, magnificent, wonderul body they have, and not fall victim to the message that if they do not look a certain way then no man will love them. For. Goodness. Sake!
Exactly!! I don't usually watch adverts but I made a point of it a couple of days ago as Mum had mentioned something I should look out for. To quote my granny ... I was flabbergasted ... at the push to sell all sorts of necessary lotions and potions that you NEED to stop your face from dropping off!
DeleteYes , what a mixed up world we live in, I'm often guilty of getting 'the wants' rather than focusing on what I really need. The quotes are lovely, thank you
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Oh we are ALL guilty of it sometimes don't worry. We just need to pull ourselves up short now and then don't we.
DeleteI love this.
ReplyDeleteThanks :-)
DeleteI'm trying to work on losing at least two things each week, rather than trying frantically to get rid of lots. It's working, slowly.
ReplyDeleteIt's so much easier that way isn't it, and satisfying too.
DeleteI am reading between your lines. The world doesn't stand still. We are being urged to keep up.
ReplyDeleteThose of us with sense don't just step off this mad merry-go-round, we leap.
DeleteI am just starting the decluttering process on my home. I recently cleared out my sister's house when she passed away, and this made me realize how important it is to clear out mine. No one will want almost all of my things, so I only need to keep what I want. Out it goes! Your post really speaks to me. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt took the memories of clearing out my Nana's house and then sorting through Dad's things to set me off decluttering, but it's an ongoing process that should be done at our own speed isn't it.
DeleteI am trying to use up what I have, shop at home first, and then really think about what I am purchasing and if I really need it. Our inflation here has reached a 40 year high (though it still isn't as high as yours), gas prices keep rising and that causes grocery prices are rising..... Much rather eat than have items I don't need.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Inflation is just ridiculous isn't it. I think I am going to write a menu plan out for next week using the contents of the fridge and cupboards and try my best not to shop at all.
DeleteYou're right, it doesn't compute at all. I like Elizabeth's comment regarding taking simplification slowly so it doesn't become a comparative stressor in ones life. Thanks for that - it resonates with me no end.
ReplyDeletexx
It's surprising how getting rid of things just one item at a time ... sorting while the kettle is boiling for example ... can make me feel a little bit of relief.
DeleteJayne commented upon your second quote and I'm coming to that one too. How many people have noticed how now many businesses are predating men and are making money by developing men's insecurities in exactly the same way as has been done with women.. Goodness is forsaken in the commercial world!
ReplyDeleteYes, they've virtually run out of 'new' ideas of things to sell to women so now they are starting on men ... I wonder how far it will go.
DeleteThank you for sharing theses memes ,they all mean something to me. I have been de-cluttering for the last year and still have a little way to go, it makes me more content to have a level of tidiness and simplicity in my home and life it also gives me more freedom and time to deal with the important things. When I do have some time to be me , which isn't very often, I just want to "be" and I don't need stuff to do that, just the basics ,a comfortable home ,something to eat that is easy to prepare maybe a book and most of all ,peace . I have almost given up trying for the ideal and am slowly learning that it really doesn't matter what other people think of me ( I have always had a problem with that ), I am overweight, have wrinkles, veins showing where they never used too, my clothes are for comfort, not fashion but that doesn't define who I am , I go out of my way to avoid confrontation and have changed my priorities to suit me and my family, Acceptance is a big thing for me but it's getting better ,I have excepted my body and my enormous knickers and am no longer ashamed to hang them on my washing line to blow like the sales on a yacht , I do not need the latest anti wrinkle creams ,I am supposed to have some at 66 , I do not need expensive , pretty tenna pads , who is going to see them and look what they are designed for !!! plain ones do the job , I am sure that are not written into sexy novels as part of seductive underwear :) ( sorry if that is too much information but I think we are all girls here ).
ReplyDeleteWell Bridget Jones did quite well out of her 'massive knickers', Hugh Grant found them very appealing ... well his character did!!
DeleteYep, I hang all my undies on the line and have for years now. I did get extra strong pegs when we lived on our Welsh hillside as the wind there occasionally got very strong and I didn't want them blowing onto the A470 and landing slap bang in the middle of a windscreen. Imagine the headline ... 'Cause of accident, a pair of rather large ladies knickers obscuring the drivers view!!'
Yep, we are virtually all girls here ... any men will be far too embarrassed to put their hands up now ;-)
Great post Sue, I have just wrote something similar on my Instagram today, I know which path I am following and that is my own. xx
ReplyDeleteI think it takes age and maturity to find our path, but what a relief once we do eh. :-)
DeleteSadly when you live with a mental health condition like borderline personality disorder it is very hard to break down what you want and what you really need. I have lived with it for 34 years and I am only in my mid 40’s. I do have mad clear outs and I have worked with organisers and mental health practitioners. But I always end up back at square one .
ReplyDeleteMy husband is great is he knows what my weaknesses are and we work through them together and he won’t rush me. As it sends me tumbling backwards. We are again doing it. But you are quite right everyone has to have new now it drives me insane
It is so much harder when it is actually a mental health condition. My Dad was a hoarder and was only kept in check by having specific areas that he could store things. It still took us two skips, lots of charity shop donations and numerous trips to the tip to get rid of his 'treasures'. All the good stuff that he had saved had been ruined by the rubbish that he had also classed as treasures. My Mum was very patient ... most of the time.
DeleteI'm with you all the way on this one - how can we grow the economy, spend more in shops etc yet preserve the planet - it doesn't add up to me. We all need a mindset change and to set ourselves on a different road or we are surely going to run out of road.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I think shop owners need to stop and think about the wares they are peddling and see how they can change things to keep us shopping but for things that we actually do need or are useful.
Delete