Stuff

I've been living in my new place, my own place, a place of my very own, for nearly a year now. So I guess this post is a bit of an anniversary look back at my relationship with stuff. But it's almost Christmas as well, which always gets me thinking about these things.

I don't know what Christmas is like where you are but I suspect if you have the internet connection to be reading this then you have some idea of how Christmas and Stuff are convoluted.

Which is funny because I don't know any one single person over the age of about eleven who really enjoys presents and the mental effort of thinking what to buy for someone who has everything and having the chance to fit fifteen new things they themselves may or may not want into their home. And yet there you are and there I am at "the mall" with everyone else a weekend or two before Christmas, trying to buy the least crappy presents we can come up with.

(As an aside, I stood through a brilliant and enthusiastic demonstration for some body lotion + nail buffer set yesterday afternoon and then had to explain I didn't want to buy it because I already own body lotion and I like my nails the way they are and I'm not actually going to purchase anything because I don't like stuff. Poor lad was just trying to do his job.)

This isn't going to become a post about the true meaning of Christmas, although there is that. But regardless of your beliefs, hasn't Christmas become such a retailers' conspiracy?

Anyway I think I've been pretty good about not Buying Stuff this year because my place is so tiny there isn't anywhere to put it; and there is definitely a sense of smug self satisfaction (hello, alliteration) in feeling in control of what comes into your home and staying on top of it.

The Tiny House movement has interested me greatly, because it has this near total clarity about the relationship between the physical structure of your space, what you put in it, and how that affects your life. That's something I want to blog more about, and I'm slowly working through other people's blogs and I'll add the ones I like to my sidebar.

It's either a Hobbit thing or a Moomintroll thing but to me this is a perfect house size. (image: tinyhousepins.com)

In the meantime I recommend anything by Kirsten Dirksen on youtube. She produces great videos about lots of different things that I find inspiring; here's two for starters.

Thoreau's Cabin Redux: Jay Shafer on tiny homes and happiness
Intentionally Small Home: Urban Living in North Carolina

I'd love to build my own tiny house like Jay Shafer's one day, but in lieu of having no building/construction skills whatsoever, I'd be more than happy to live in a tiny partment a la Nicole Alvarez :-)