Make A (Mental) List Of Everything You Own

How do you know you need to buy something if you don't know what you already have? How do you know what to keep, and what to jettison?

The best way to truly see is to make a list of everything you own. 

Everything.

In order to avoid buying things you already have, you need to make that scary list.

That advice seems extreme, and it is. Unless you like that kind of thing. 

I don't, even though I don't have much stuff.

But I do keep a mental list going. 

I am constantly aware of my possessions, so I know what I have and what I can do with it. 

Also, and maybe more importantly, because some of it is undoubtably crap that needs to go.

As I make my way around the house, and in the garage, I make a mental note of all these things that have wormed their way into the soil of my life.

While observing everything, I ask these questions:

• When was the last time I used that?
• Will I use that again?
• Does owning it improve my life?

It is easy to acquire stuff, but it is increasingly difficult to get rid of it. 

Occasionally I dream of having a ritual crap-burning fire in the back yard.

Impermanence. Dust to dust. The fleeting nature of stuff and life. That kind of thing.

It could be my simple living performance art.

Very liberating just to think about it.

Make that list, mental or otherwise. You might be shocked at what you find out. 

So. Much. Stuff.

But it will be a good shocked, a wake up call for a light flight to a less burdened, more efficient life.