Junk in between the ears.

The link I posted was a book I read years ago that got me to thinking, and I believe it led me to where I am now.

Here it is again!

It is called "Simplify your life". It is a small book with very short chapters.
Some of it should be called "live dirtier than before" because it suggests you do your cleaning a lot less than before. Do laundry less, cleaning your house less, etc. Yes, that saves time, but I should be able to clean my house when I want.
The concept is to make life easier and simpler, which I embrace. I spend so much time wasted doing "busy" work, that it drives me crazy. So, I will adapt the ideas in this book to make them my own. I will simplify my life.
One of the things mentioned is to live and work in a place where you enjoy life. I don't like Central Pennsylvania for one reason:
The weather.
I dislike the humidity, the cold without snow, the snow, ice, rain, and did I mention the humidity?
I hate the way my nose is stuffed up all the time.
I hate the way I feel when it gets cold and my joints ache, even though there is nothing wrong with me.
I hate cutting the lawn and having the moisture waft up and make me feel like I'm trying to wade through mud and heavy air.
I hate the way it smells.
So, I want to simplify my life by moving somewhere that I don't have those feelings.
I was in Nevada a few years ago, and I loved the fact that my sinus' cleared up. I liked the dryness and the warmth. I even liked the heat.

I have adopted many of the ideas in the book, but unfortunately, my wife hasn't, and probably won't. She equates things to value and wealth. I don't.

I have a few things I value more than almost anything. But, I have gotten rid of stuff I store in boxes just because I hate the idea of moving them once more into another closet or the basement of another home along the way. Why have something in a box when I will never look at it, or use it?

Most of the stuff in the boxes has no value of any kind.

I once dreamed of owning a museum size home that had shelves in every room that housed everything I stored in those boxes so everyone visiting could see. I would invite people over just to look at the stuff I had on the shelves.

In order for me to own a house like that, I would have to have a total net worth of over 100 million dollars, with a steady income to pay for the place.

It just ain't worth it! Why would anyone want to see boxes of half finished blankets? Or some plastic plates, bowls, and utensils?

I have a collection of record Albums from my early years. I used to play them every time I was in my room. I played all of them over and over. Lots of memories there. I would like to take the time to transfer them all over to digital because there are songs there that will be lost. But, will I die if that doesn't happen? Nope!

I found 5 Winross trucks. They were collector items in their day and I got them cheap. 3 of them are a paint scheme that isn't used anymore. The other two are anniversary editions. None of them are worth what I paid for them, and chances are if I listed them on eBay or Craigslist, they wouldn't sell anyway. In the meantime, they are sitting in their original boxes, with their original plastic bags.

My wife has her collection of books. She has text books back to the 1800's from her Great Aunt who was a teacher until she was 85. I would love to have bookcases for them to be displayed, but I don't. So, they will sit in the basement on a shelf collecting dust.

She also has her college books back to 1971. Anyone want to see the amazing differences between computers now and then? A computer text book from 1971 is quite amazing. So, it will sit on a shelf collecting dust right next to the geography books from the 1800's. Even the library doesn't want them.

I gave away an entire collection of National Geographic Magazines last year. We had them stored on shelves in the basement. No one wanted them. A senior lady who was home bound got them. She is making scrap books with them. Cutting the pictures out and pasting them onto her scrapbooks to tell a story. Her scrap books will probably be placed on a shelf in her basement and thrown out when she dies. Sad.

My science fiction book collection went to a young man when neither of my kids wanted them. I gave them to him because I had the memories of every page of every book in my head. I still do. I can even quote from them. But, I can't stand the thought of them cluttering up my basement and not being read and enjoyed. I wish the young man many good memories, and dreams from them. Heinlein lives on!

Now, along with the other stuff, I also took all of my clothing to Goodwill. This was part of my weight loss milestones, but it also proved to me that I can live without them. I have new clothing, but I used the simple concept in the book to replace them. I only bought what I need and they are all variations of the same styles, in different colors. This saves time and money. It also makes it easy to get dressed in the dark since my wife and I have different schedules.

Now, my wife has 7 drawers under our water bed.
She has a pile of clothing on the floor.
She has the whole bedroom closet. I moved my stuff into the studio closet.
She has a chest in the bedroom.
She has a 10 drawer dresser of which I managed to steal 3 drawers for myself.
She has at least 10 boxes in the basement with clothes.
She has two 5 foot high piles of coats on the floor of the basement.
She has the whole living room closet for coats she will never wear.
Shoes? Oh yeah. Lots of shoes.
You can never have too many socks. You can have one too many socks, however.
I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but can you imagine how cluttered her mind must be to have all this stuff?
I can, because I have gotten rid of my stuff, and I am feeling much better now!

I can't seem to convince her how much better she would feel if she got rid of the stuff and just kept what she needed. Oh well.

I still have stuff to get rid of and I will do this over the next few weeks. I have plenty of time while I plan my next step.

In a nutshell, to simplify your life, is to examine every part of your life, and eliminate the garbage, and do the things that make you feel good about yourself.

• You lose weight, you get rid of the garbage. You learn how to eat in order to keep the weight off, you simplify your life. You give your life meaning again.
• You clean out your abode and you get rid of the baggage in between your ears so you can see what's important and what's not.
  
• You decide what to keep and what to get rid of, and you take control of your life again or maybe for the first time.
  

I have read at least 1500 books, that I've also owned. I kept them in the hopes of passing them down to my kids to read. They read some and decided not to bother with the rest. So, I got rid of the books, but kept the words and ideas in my head.
I will be moving soon, and will probably lose touch with this blog and my other internet contacts because I plan on making major changes.
These changes are visible to me now because I simplified my life. I didn't see them clearly before because of all the junk that was clouding my vision.
My work goes on. I wish my good feelings, my new level of energy, my positive outlook on the future on everyone whoever reads this.
Stay tuned for new and better things for you and me!