Voluntary Simplicity: How do you determine a want vs. a need

[CathToria]

I really want to get a handle on the clutter and stuff that I have accumulated in my life. I think a lot of my "stuff" would not be in my home today if I had a good handle on want vs. need.

So, how do you make that distinction in your life?

[juliebelle]

i always start with thinking..."do i use these things on a daily basis" of course there are some things that aren't for daily use...but that always helps me in the beginning.

i also try to pack things up sometimes and see if i miss it.

another good rule of thumb is "x in x out" ie..if you buy a new outfit...take an outfit out...or if you buy a new toy...take a toy out of your home.

[Amys1st]

love this dilemma!

Ok ask yourself:

Do you find the item beautiful and useful? Anything you do not consider useful or beautiful should not be in your home

Do I love this item?

Have I used it in the past year?

Is it really garbage?

Do I have another one that better?

Does it have sentimental value that causes me to love it?

Does it give me guilt and make me sad when I see it?

What does this represent?

Why am I afraid to get rid of it?

How long am I going to carry it around?

Does it bless my fmaily? Could it bless someone else's family?

[mama_at_home]

I am enjoying this thread! :

[Eman'smom]

Originally Posted by Amys1st

love this dilemma!

Ok ask yourself:

Do you find the item beautiful and useful? Anything you do not consider useful or beautiful should not be in your home

Do I love this item?

Have I used it in the past year?

Is it really garbage?

Do I have another one that better?

Does it have sentimental value that causes me to love it?

Does it give me guilt and make me sad when I see it?

What does this represent?

Why am I afraid to get rid of it?

How long am I going to carry it around?

Does it bless my fmaily? Could it bless someone else's family?

Something else I'm trying (not saying I'm good at it but I'm trying ) Is only buying "consumables" ie food, light bulbs.......

If it's not a consumable I try to use "free" money. I allow myself to shop for the kids at the consignment shop if I turn in stuff so it's "free". That way more is going out than is coming in.

[guestmama9911]

Something is really only a need if it feeds you, clothes you, protects you from the elements, or contributes to your health. Everything else is technically a want.

I am starting to declutter by asking myself "Does this make my life better?" If it doesn't, I'm giving it away on freecycle or tossing it out. We are buying our first home and will likely have to downsize from what we now enjoy in our apartment so we really have to ask ourselves what is important to keep and what isn't. It's tough.

[knittingmomma]

I agree about the item needing to add beauty in some way to your life or being truly useful. For examle, a classic novel can add much to our family's life as we read it out loud together. However, if we have one more candlestick holder, it will only add clutter.

I love this discussion!

Warm wishes,
Tonya

[berkeleyp]

I'm bad about clutter - I find myself keeping things that i think might be useful someday even though i really don't know how or when. i feel like throwing things that could be useful away is wasteful. Of course many things can be donated but i'm talking about things like old christmas cards - i fantasize that i will oneday be an avid scrapbooker or crafter and that the cards could be cut up. It's things like this that clutter my life. Thankfully once in awhile I get the clear out the clutter bug and go on a rampage getting rid of stuff.

The only questions I ask myself when going through stuff are:

"Will I really, truly, honestly miss this thing if I get rid of it?" "Will my quality of life be affected in any way now or in the future by not having this thing?"

I guess that doesn't address need vs. want but it is a good meter of how important something is ot you. If you won't say, "damn I wish I had that thing - it would be really great right now" sometime soon then you might as well not have it.

[CathToria]

SO how do all of you feel/act on throwing stuff away. Since subbing to this thread, I have been asking myself the "do I love it, etc" questions, and then I chuck some items into the trash.

But being environmentally aware and everything, I kind of feel funny just filling my trash can with stuff..... and I'm talking about stuff that probably has little value on ebay or to others.... cheap wicker baskets, birthday party goodie bags trinkets, old butter containers, half used coloring books, not new but so old they are rareley used crayons..........

How do you handle these types of things???

[mightymoo]

freecycle!!! www.freecycle.org

You will be amazed by what another person can use. It doesn't hurt to post it, if no one wants it you can throw it in the trash and not feel bad about its use to someone else. I also post in the free section of craigslist.org.

In our old house the previous owners had left a big box of random wires and electrical stuff, used and whatnot. Looked like trash to me, but I put it up on freecycle - a woman who didn't have a lot of money said she had someone who was willing to do electrical work for her if she got the materials, he would sift through it and so she was collecting materials for that. I felt much better about giving it to her than filling the landfill with it.

You never know, someone might be looking for hte very thing you are throwing out!


I have a hard time with cutting bcak on the consumerism, a lot of the suggestions above are great for removing things, but my challenge is not buying them to begin with!

[larastheme]

Love this thread--do you people use the same questions when throwing things away that you already have that you do when buying something new?

My biggest problem is that I remember where I get everything--so practically everything has a sentimental attachment/guilt associated with it.

[guestmama9911]

Originally Posted by CathToria

SO how do all of you feel/act on throwing stuff away. Since subbing to this thread, I have been asking myself the "do I love it, etc" questions, and then I chuck some items into the trash.

But being environmentally aware and everything, I kind of feel funny just filling my trash can with stuff..... and I'm talking about stuff that probably has little value on ebay or to others.... cheap wicker baskets, birthday party goodie bags trinkets, old butter containers, half used coloring books, not new but so old they are rareley used crayons..........

How do you handle these types of things???

Don't forget you can also recycle a lot of the stuff that gets thrown in the trash, such as half used coloring books and old butter containers. Th crayons can be donated to a thrift shop. The cheap baskets would be a hit on freecycle.

Right now my DH and I are trying to buy our first place, so when we want to buy something new we ask ourselves, "Do I want this more than I want a house?" It works nicely to curb spending.

The hardest things for me to get rid of are the sentimental gifts from people that may be useless or even ugly but were well-thought out and sincere. I have some figurines and vases that someone might have searched several weeks for and I think they look hideous but I keep them anyway because they represent someone's affection.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by alisaterry

The hardest things for me to get rid of are the sentimental gifts from people that may be useless or even ugly but were well-thought out and sincere. I have some figurines and vases that someone might have searched several weeks for and I think they look hideous but I keep them anyway because they represent someone's affection.

My question would be- what were they thinking?? I heard a comedian say that once when giving a gift he hated. He was told Its the thought that counts. And he said "well what were you thinking??

[berkeleyp]

do you people use the same questions when throwing things away that you already have that you do when buying something new?

I try to - yes. I am the queen of almost buying something I really like and then talking myself out of it saying "do I really need this?" (keep in mind I am using the word need very loosely as I am not wanting for any true needs like food and water) Usually the answer is no. Sometimes I will also put off a purchase - "do I really need this now or could i wait a few more weeks or months?"

In the end, I rarely buy things for myself.

[BabyBumblebee]

This is such a great thread; we've been really trying hard to buy less, and use everything that we already have more...but it's not always easy. It starts to feel as though we are being controlled by stuff

Does anyone else struggle with feeling guilty when they throw stuff away? Not the kind of things that you can Freecycle (which I adore, btw) but the kind of sentimental clutter? Birthday/holiday cards, personal notes, even gift bags? I always feel wretched, as if I'm being disrespectful of the person who gave them to us....kooky, I know

[CathToria]

I have a hard time throwing something away if I think that it is worth something... like the gift bag example, I might think to myself, but if I throw this away i may need one and have to spend $2 on one, so I'll just keep it.... just in case

[melissel]

In terms of throwing things away, I once read something (and I can't remember where, so if it was here, I'm sorry I'm not crediting whoever wrote it!) that has really stuck with me. It was basically about "stuff karma": If you happen to get rid of something that you end up needing later in life, it will find its way around to you again. I've totally found that to be true. I would estimate that 95% of the time I have never needed what I've gotten rid of. 1% of the time a replacement found its way back to me somehow. 1% of the time I had to buy a new one, and 3% of the time it was something I discovered I could do without when I thought I really "needed" it for a moment but didn't have it handy. KWIM? You have to decide whether eliminating the mental stress of keeping the stuff around is worth the extra couple of bucks it might cost to replace something down the line if you REALLY needed to buy it.

That said, of course, I have had a real problem with the gift bags too . I save them in my gift wrapping storage box, and then when it comes time to use them I almost always decide they are too beat up to use again and get one from the dollar store that's not wrinkly. Only recently have I just begun accepting that I must recycle them immediately or they will make me (and my DH) crazy !

HTH

[ShellBelle76]

Fabulous thread - and I can totally relate to the gift bags issue

[Innocuous1]

Magazines---if they don't get read within the month/week that they are current, throw them away(recycle if you can)

[BabyBumblebee]

this thread has *so* inspired me - I have been tackling the clutter hole that is the spare room, and am finally throwing things away!!Yay!

So here's the score so far:

34...yup, 34 ancient magazines...recycled. If I couldn't find the article that I really needed to keep they went in the blue box whole! Otherwise, the articles have gone into a ring binder.

What I realised: *no-one* needs to keep an Ikea catalogue from 1998. NO-ONE! :

University Chemistry, Calc and Physics texts...gone to Freecycle. I'm not going back to study those again, and man were they ever expensive...might as well bless someone else!

Assorted gift bags: I'd been keeping them becuase I thought I was sentimentally attached to them. Guess what? I couldn't even remember the significance of any of them Gone to the recycling...

Assorted books...donated to the local library. I didn't even know that I had most of them - how sad is that?

Sorry, I didn't mean for this post to be so rambly...I was just really amazed and pleased that something that had seemed so daunting and emotionally difficult was so freeing and peaceful Thanks for the inspiration!