Possessions

I've been thinking a lot lately about possessions and how they come in and out of our lives, how they have life cycles of their own. I've been following minimalist discussion for about a year or two, and what I love about it is that you get to question all your things. I get to appreciate my belongings more through asking why they are here and what purpose they serve. It sounds silly, but it's so easy to just have things and not think about them. They become scenery and you barely see them.

Throughout the process of organising or decluttering things, you notice that you're still acquiring stuff. I have new shoes, a little toy figurine of a gnome feeding a piglet (I need this), and a toast rack with a heart motif. As you clear out things, you might also find things that you've forgotten about. Long lost memories that you want to keep and clutch to your chest for the rest of your life (that's me with the gnome).

Most of the things I own are things to use. Paint, pens, camera, video games, notebooks, and the few books I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Those things represent ongoing things, entertainment, experiences, and creative endeavours. Whenever my acrylic paint runs out, I intend to concentrate on using my watercolours instead. Notebooks are slowly being worked through, and pens tend to run out, sometimes pretty quickly.

I still have that dream that one day I could fit everything I own into a suitcase (excepting furniture and other household essentials), but I also really want to keep my toast rack (which I'm using to hold papers and things, not toast). It's important to keep weird and pointless items sometimes.