We spent the whole Sunday just re-tidying up and cleaning off some old stuff at home. We threw out hundreds of paper boxes and another thousand of assorted unused items. I can’t believe that it took us so long to do it and it’s even harder to believe that we have so much clutters that we don’t really use at all or just forgot that we had them.

At the end of the day, it really triggered me to reflect my life and also triggered my thoughts on pursuing a simple lifestyle in the future.

In those cupboards, I saw clothes that I used to fond of or no longer interested, electronic gears, old or new, little things I collected for my hobby that I hardly touch now, souvenirs that I bought on trips being dumped in the drawers, gifts that friends gave but I don’t really like ….

For the stuff we can afford, everything seems to have its duplicate counterpart, and everything is just gone beyond what we actually need. But guess what, do we actually see the problem? No. The stupid part is that we keep buying and get new things in.

Down to the earth, nobody really needs so many shoes, socks, scarves, waist belts, black pants, handbags, hats, cables, desktop lamps, wallets or purses, books….and as a matter of a fact, you only wear or use very little of all the stuff everyday or only for one third of your time. For those stuff you think to make your life easier to have it or you think you could get benefits from using them only once a year, it’s actually not worth to have it at all. It wastes money, wastes space, wastes time to clean, organise and eventually get rid of….it’s such an endless and fruitless practise that makes our life more complicated, tiresome and less happier.

In the context of a world of materialism and when purchasing new stuff, I don’t know how many people have a mechanism in them to ask “if this is something I actually need or it’s just what I want or desire?”

I don’t think I have that wisdom yet, though I really want to be on that path to embrace it. There are just so many things that we can not sacrifice or give away. From the surface, it seems that having stuff makes us feel safer, but when it’s gone too far on the opposite direction, like depending on materials too much in our life, it only makes us less satisfied and feeling more unsecure.