(002) Downsizing

So now I had a firm date to leave the states based on my airline ticket purchase.  It was time to downsize the clutter in my life.  I lived in a small-ish apartment in Midtown Sacramento and didn’t realize how much JUNK I had!!  As I was going though my things, I would think back to whatever date/time I had purchased whatever it was that was going to be sold/given away/recycled or trashed.  I tried to remember when I acquired the item and the situation at that time.  It seemed that I could remember feeling that I really, really “NEEDED” this particular item in my life at that time.  While packing, I couldn’t remember why I felt that.  But as I was downsizing, maybe I realized that I was filling my life with things because maybe I was unhappy about my life at that time.  What felt like a certain importance at that previous time now felt like just a ‘thing’.  It was strange.

As I was getting rid of practically everything, I thought it would be nice to live in a minimalist manner.  I don’t think I could do this.  I have too many hobbies and things that actually bring me joy.  I like to play musical instruments so I have a number of guitars and basses.  I like to record my music so I have laptops and recording hardware, microphones, microphone stands and all other accoutrements of the recording process.  I like to do silversmithing and jewelry work.  So I have a number of tools for the silversmithing and pounds and pounds of “rough slabs”.  Rough slabs are pieces of a stone or mineral that have been cut in a flat slab about 1/4″ thick.  You use your trim-saw to cut a small piece off of the slab then use your grinder/polisher to shape the stone into a cabochon.  A lot of this went in storage, some came with me.  So living life as a minimalist is not in the cards for me.  Wherever I live, I assume it’ll always be a little messy and a little ‘lived-in’.

I feel that I still “need” these things.  They are waiting in storage in Sacramento for my return.