Shift + Del
I've been meaning to reduce the amount of things I own. Time passes, things outlive their utility. The problem is I, like most of my peers, grew up in a resource scarce household. This upbringing makes discarding things difficult.
So drastic measures. Every week I'll try to discard things I've not used in a while. Some principles to evaluate stuff below:
Has it been used recently?
- Plastic dabba from 8 years ago? Gone.
- Two extra vesa monitor mounts? Gone.
- Gaming mice, most of which malfunction due to wear. You guessed it, gone.
Can I do without?
Intentionally try living without something for few weeks and see if I miss it.
- Why does one guy need 12 spoons? Although I cannot discard those steel spoons, I can definitely package and store it.
- 8 pairs of shoes? 3 of which I've not even touched in a year. The humble bata sandal gets used 70% of the time.
Is it high-quality? Does it last? Is it useful in many ways?
- Instead of 10 t-shirts that wrinkle and get bent out of shape, how about 3 excellent ones that can be washed, and reused.
- Instead of many regular SS vessels, how about a tri-ply kadai with a lid, A sauce pan with a handle and re using the cooker as a temporary kadai if the need arises..
- One paring knife instead of a fidgety peeler, 3 high quality ladles for pouring dosa, sambar etc...
Will also be a very interesting audit of the things I own.
Fingers crossed.