Submitted by Devon Garcon, UK
The glamour of fashion and the latest makeup, trends, styles, gadgets… What more can we want? That’s the objective – to get us to want more, buy more, have more. Get the latest this and the greatest that. Upgrade. Keep up with technology! Don’t get left behind! Old is bad; new is good.
Knowing that the whole objective of corporations, stores and the advertising media is to get you to spend money, what will you do differently? Continue to give in and support these multi-billionaire people and their companies, or take a look at your life and find a way to do things differently?
I my house we don’t need the latest gadgets. We all have cell phones, sure. But, we don’t need mini computers in our pockets. We don’t need to have facetime or video to have a conversation. We don’t need a cellphone strapped to our wrists.
We recently moved. We downsized, going from 2,700 square feet to 1,200. We found ourselves with too much “stuff.” We want to keep our life simple – our living style simple. Our nice little house is streamlined and has just what it needs and no more. There are pieces of furniture sitting in the garage waiting for a spring tag sale or for pick up by the local charity. As we continue to sift through things and place things, more and more goes into that group.
Even the closets are smaller. This is fine because though I downsized my wardrobe greatly three years ago, this allowed me to downsize even more. I only want what I need. This is a far cry from the woman who used to have three full-sized closets and all of them full. Because I was a performing artist, I spent thousands of dollars of clothes every year. I always had a nice annual tax deduction. But, the reality is that I didn’t need extravagant clothes to perform in. Some nice things yes, but as many as I had? No. Now I look back and see how foolish and wasteful that grand illusion was.
A smaller house – smaller closets. My family followed suit and we generated bags of clothes to be donated. This purging or redefining evoked conscious thought in all of them. We are all keeping life simple.
Even the kitchen doesn’t allow for a lot of things. Because, yes, it’s small too. We have place settings for four, just the basic pots and pans, the wok and simple things. Well what if you have company, I know some of you are asking. Not to worry, I do have a few extra place settings boxed up and available if needed.
There is only one television in the house. If there was one each bedroom, that would result in everyone being in their own cocoon watching tv. To much isolation. Mostly we enjoy television as a group. Occasionally, someone may want to watch a program or two, but not often. Our minds and our lives do not revolve around the television set – nor do they revolve around technology and computers. Everyone limits their time in cyberspace. This is perhaps one of the most wonderful features in our home. We are a family and we engage in family things and organic living with friends and activities. Keeping it simple.
It’s really nice to walk into a home that is streamlined, simple and has “space.” Not space in terms of square footage, but space in terms of not being overcrowded or overly populated with things. This is a conscious choice created by conscious thought and our desire to keep things simple.
What about you?
Devon Garcon is an artist, singer, musician and lives in the UK.
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