The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

When G and I moved in together about a month ago, we found ourselves with many duplicates. Actually, even before I moved in, G found himself with many duplicates, several of which was palmed off to me. And now that we are under one roof, the many duplicates just multiplied. So we went through our stuff and picked the best of everything and put the rest in the hall cupboard. Apart from stuff I had, G already had leftover stuff from his last flatmate. We counted 2 blenders, 2 popcorn makers (?!), 3 toasters, 3 electric kettles, 2 ironing boards, 3 DVD players plus a whole mound of cutlery and other kitchen utensils, pots and pans, baking tins etc.

So when his colleague who has just moved in with his girlfriend, needed stuff to set up home after travelling around the world, G jumped at the chance to de-clutter and be a do-gooder - to kill 2 birds with 1 stone! So out came the crate and bags of duplicates plus other things that we have too many of (like plates and bowls) and we put together a big care package for his colleague.

And just tonight, I came across this article, "How to Live with Just 100 Things".

How very true, that we are a people of excessive consumption, all trying to free up more closet space, counter space, shoe rack space - so that we can buy more? Or perhaps now, more and more like a whole movement of minimalists who are trying to live with less, people are trying to have less and be "more" free, and less shackled to an existence of tangibles?

And so we purge. To achieve a state of "lightness" (when the yoga teacher talked about the state of "lightness" at class today, I didn't realise that the concept could also be applied to this aspect of our life). But yes, to achieve lightness, to be free...