De-cluttering & Self-sufficiency
This post I attempted to post in the middle of July but didn't get past the title. Last week I made this statement "I personally am not convinced decluttering helps the simple living cause because it dimishes your ability to be self-sufficient but that is another post."
In the comments,
Back in July I was quite taken aback by some posts I was reading at different places, and I did some posts of my own with my take on the same subjects. I was concerned this was not the done thing and stopped. I was reading last night about blogging and different things about how to blog better. It was suggested that is having conversations (I think) and it is good because some thought and time has gone into the post and people can learn from it etc.
Not remembering all the instances in my life where keeping things helped our ability to look after ourselves I asked my husband about it. He suggested the example of our cobweb broom! We have had our cobweb broom I think before I even lived with hubby, or in the early days in the early 80s. In these days of disposable razors, maybe there is such a thing as a disposable cobweb broom? I mean why keep it and why make a space for it? Well, one would assume that it cost money, but over nearly 30 years it hasn't caused us any worry about money. It hasn't added to our living expenses.
These days fixed overheads are everything aren't they? It affects our ability to be elastic with our income fluctuations.
But really the type of self-sufficiency I am talking about is fixing things, or making things, like for example in the garden. Being able to go to our little stockpile of things and find just what you need. My husband does this quite often. There actually has been a time where we needed something that we had thrown away.
The time when you really wish you didn't keep things I think if during times of moving house. And moving house and the ability to do that is part of change management. A subject that comes up during things like restructuring. To tell you the truth the things we kept in our first house, when we didn't throw out things especially things you keep in the shed, could have fitted in this house's shed. Our other move was just because we wanted to and the shed on that house was tiny.
Our first house seemed small but we had lots of things in it. Not real estate perfect, but during the whole time we lived there we did live a simple life and enjoyed it immensely. Part of that enjoyment was the ability to sit in the garden in privacy and the free use of water.
I was reading an article this morning that had an interesting scripture in it, that doesn't apply to us in this meme, but it touched me just the same.
"I think the most important question is not what I should give away, because the Scriptures say you can sell everything you have and give it to the poor, but if you don’t have love it’s nothing. So the deepest question around simplicity is about love, and redistribution of resources is only meaningful inasmuch as it’s rooted in love. When we really figure out how to live in the personalism and love of Christ with our neighbor, then that defines what’s enough so that we’re not just driven by an ideology, but by a love relationship to our neighbor."
"And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
1Cr 13:3
I have had two other thoughts today. When we moved to the house we wanted to have, the decision being made in that quite time during restructuring when everything seems fine, and it is easy to get bored lol, I found I wanted to make everything perfect, as we do.
I found that this effort, driven in part by my Mum's wish for me to do that, was one of the worst times in my life. And that is saying something I think. Lately I have also wanted to appear neat and tidy, though failing miserably in some areas. Mostly because we are very busy. Our dog, our little puppy it turns out may have permanent damage to his eye. He was the last in the litter. In all other respects he is perfect. I realised I was disappointed about that. I am really not one to care about appearances, until I started "trying".
I was affected by an article about having out of date clothes, and have been watching others and how they are neat and well put together, including my grown up son. It makes me proud and I know no one can say bad things about him or myself. However, once this thing happened with the dog, I knew things were going too far. That this looking neat can get way out of hand. I am just going to love the dog, and do my best, but that is as far as it is going. If you start to thing the dog isn't good enough, how long would it take to include people in that? That is a definite no no for me at least.
Back to self-sufficient. I think there must be grades of it. People who say that spent like there was no tomorrow and who now de-clutter, also have been making preserves. One would assume they collect these and store them somewhere. One of the things that I was never tempted to throw out even though I wasn't using it was my water bath canner, or Fowler's Preserving Kit.
I know it is nice to have a home that is easy to clean and easy on the eyes. I know that I am working on some sort of balance that my grandparents had. One grandparent stored a lot of those things in the tobacco kiln. Her husband his things in a loft, maybe an old chaff storage area, they even stored paper and it was well preserved. My Nana had a whole magazine collection out there not bothering anybody. What heaven.
The things that were clutter that did bother my Nana where some things others had, not sure if this was one of them, but bottles or flagons of seeds and legumes under the bed! However all the things were used and brought a great deal of joy in my life and fostered a great deal of creativity.
I remember the various dried flower arrangements, I know so much of my uncle did helped me be able to live happily with what I have at different points in my life when I have to.
Potting Shed, Inside View of Tools, Apple Tree Cottage, Wales
I find it so helpful to go through my kids clothes and get rid of what they really don't need. It definitely helps to keep the clutter down, and I find that they don't really need so many clothes anyways.
I'm interested in your comment about how simple living can interfere with self-sufficient living. Care to elaborate next week? :)