Further Purging

In addition to contemplating the nature of reality, I’ve also been contemplating the nature of objects. I was reading online about people who, in their minimalist quest, have attempted to attain the 100 objects limit.  That is reduce their possessions to 100 objects or less.  Now, in reading, from what I can see there is a degree of gamesmanship going on there – several of the sites I read contained caveats – caveats like – “group possessions don’t count”, “collections count as one”, “things required for work don’t count”. 

Those are some pretty exhaustive caveats.  Does that means my movie collection (literally hundreds of movies) only counts as “one thing”.  Does that mean my furniture (a set) only counts as one thing?  Does my library (a collection) only count as one thing?  If that is the case then that is hardly minimalist. Anyway, I digress to critique other people, but the long and short of it is, in my contemplation of objects and my relationship to objects, I have developed a greater sense of awareness in terms of what I possess (and what in turn possesses me). 

Now, I don’t have any plans to head for the mysterious 100 items, but I do find the idea tantalizing, and I could certainly do with fewer things. Back at the turn of the year when I went through my possessions and eliminated so much stuff, a portion of the remaining stuff was boxed and set aside – and honestly, the vast majority of the boxes and drawers where I stored things I have not be into since I started that particular quest. 

To me, that is a sign that the contents of those boxes and drawers can be donated or disposed of. I kept a five tier bookshelf full of reference material and other books and I’ve been into maybe a dozen of the books on that shelf.  I have twelve boxes of personal possessions in one of the closets and I haven’t been in a single of the boxes since I initially inspected them and put them in there.  I have a four drawer bureau in one of the closets and I’ve only been in it once.

I’ve a lot of objects that are merely occupying space, both physical space in my environment and psychological space in my psyche. Further purging to come.