365 Less Things

Reducing our stuff one day at a time.

Simple Saturday ~ Life Edited

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My husband found this Ted video and of course I had to share it with you all. I also suggest you take a look at the website LifeEdited.org

Comments

  1. Thanks Steve for the video posting, now this guy has perfected his stuff in boxes as ‘Furniture’ haha. he speaks 1000 words of pure wisdom.

    Question: Can anyone explain to me the allure of dried floral arrangements, not talking about a small rose that has been dried & framed from a loved one etc, I mean big ass huge displays and smaller of what essentially are DEAD FLOWERS & TWIGS & LEAVES.

    I just got back from catching up with my friend and I haven’t really gotten over my impulse to set fire to the lot! (Arrangements that is, not my friend!) OMG she has allsorts of arrangements and I seriously felt weird, it looked like the front parlour of the ‘Addams Family’ yuck. Am I alone in this? Is there some style etiquette trend in a mag that I missed? Not only are the things DEAD & DRIED & COLOURLESS they cost a small fortune! I mentioned it very tactfully but she said she loves them, I dropped a few ‘feng shui’ pointers about dead things but she laughed at me as she meandered her way through countless treasures. By this stage I’m feeling weirder by the minute. I was actually feeling like I was being drained, squashed & smothered all at once (Kry-vac for humans!)
    Give me a single bloom or a bunch from the garden or supermarket fundraiser blooms any day. I love flowers and for a reasonable price I can have variety in my home and when they fade they go in the compost, to help my garden grow.
    The second thought I had was how the hell do you maintain something like that! How do you dust a dried arrangement? And third, why the hell would anyone want too! No offence to anyone out there that makes or likes these things. I’m really curious!

    I came home to a few pretty roses in a vase and space to walk through and a happy vibe bouncing off my walls. Tried to leave the feeling at the front door but couldn’t stop thinking about my experience!

    Still feeling a bit Icky
    Dizzy:)

    • I know what you mean. Added to that but many of those dried arrangements have things in them that I am allergic to. I have never understood it either. To each his/her own. I’m just glad I don’t have to live with those dried things.

    • Hi Dizzy,
      I think people sometimes make the mistake of thinking that because dried arrangements are preserved that they last forever. They don’t, they get drier, lose colour and get dusty over time and need disposing of. We received one at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago and I priced and shoved the vase and threw the flowers in the bin where they belonged.
      Also one of the drawbacks to decluttering is the feeling of claustrophobia when in other peoples homes. I know this from experience. But that feeling of relief when you get home is worth the wait.
      Have a shower, take a few deep breaths and regroup, my friend. Just think of it as a bad dream, you are awake now it is over.

    • Ack! A few years ago, I bought my first arrangement, just as you described – large, partially fake and partially dried real – and left it on the table on my patio. It looked good, but it was always in the way when we tried to use the table, and of course, being outside, it got dusty as can be. I decluttered it just this week! It had really faded, and as mentioned, it was dusty. I got both of the girls’ opinions: Should I throw it out or donate it to Savers. They both said, “I’ve seen worse at Savers.” I’m not sure that’s a strong endorsement, but I put it in the thrift store pile.

      • Cindy where is your picture gone. I didn’t realise this comment was from you for a moment.
        Take a good hard look at the arrangement and make sure you aren’t just sending something to Savers that they are just going to have to add to their trash.

  2. Steve, this is a great TED and I like that website too. I like the idea of his apartment. Maybe a little too boxy for me but I think some refinements could be made and still have the same result.

    • It just goes to show how little space we really need. He was so right about how we managed to stay in motels and not need all that stuff. When Steve and I travel around Europe for a month we take a backpack each and they are only half full and we manage to survive. So how much stuff do we really need and how much space to we need to keep it in. Not much.

  4. I am preaching this week on the discipline of fasting, and the idea of simplicity is tied up in it. This video is a great addition to my “research” as I am trying to get my sermon ready this afternoon. Thanks for sharing it!

    • Good luck Lynn,
      I hope you wow them and find some converts. I hope you include fasting from stuff and not just food. Keeping up with the times when it comes to religious sermons is important. One of the deadly sins is gluttony which in this age shouldn’t only include food it should include all consumption.

  5. Thanks for posting this. Just last night I proposed to my family that we move to a smaller space. Our home costs us a lot of money…Our family is getting smaller with kids moving out, etc. I love when Ted said “if you have 3,000 sq. ft., go down to 2,000.” My family could never live in 420 sq. ft., however, going down 1,000 feet is doable. Less utilities, less mortgage…etc. I’m almost there..

    • Hi Sharon,
      I think that is the difference between owning an affordable home and owning a status symbol. There is more to affording a home than just paying the mortgage isn’t there. i grew up in a four bedroom home with one bathroom with my two parents and four siblings and survived quite happily. We are certainly spoiled these day and yet not necessarily any more able to afford what we buy. I hope you do manage to downsize happily. We chose a smaller home because we wanted to location and as it turned out it was the best thing we ever did. I would never upsize it is only down from here.

    • It was great for me Gail because my husband showed it to me at about 8pm on Friday night and at that point I still hadn’t worked out what I was going to post on Saturday. Another win win situation.

  7. Loved this!!!

    One thing that came to my mind was, WHAT DOES HE NEED ALL THAT STORAGE FOR? Every nook and cranny was a storage ‘system’. I’d opt for less STUFF and more SPACE. Granted, smaller space living is ABOUT proper storage, but smaller space living is about getting rid of everything that is not absolutely essential. It justed seemed to me that there was a lot of stuff behind all those panels…maybe I need to study it in more detail?…

  8. He’s not reinventing the wheel here … but a cute guy saying it beautifully: I like!
    Yeah, the storage solutions seem to go a little overboard at the first sight – but on the other hand, this most likely is created to have no other storage solutions whatsoever, no attic, no basement, no garage, no shed … it would be interesting to see, how much storage space one really needs for which amount of stuff. I wouldn’t dare to give an estimate for my stuff in total thinking of two bikes in the basement, camping gear and moonboots in the attic, winter sports equipment hidden behind a curtain in a nook, extra blankets for guests … all things I am not attempting to declutter …

    • Hi Ideealistin,
      you are right it is not a new idea. His example is not even the way I would want live. What I took away from it was ~ How much space do we nee, if we had less unused stuff we wouldn’t need so much space, all that space cost money in one way or another, it is even more ridiculous if you can’t even really afford the space, what effect on the environment is the maintenance of that space costing.

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