A friend of mine estimates that she has forty towels and washcloths in rotation. I have six (plus a few that are in the basement on standby duty for clean-up jobs). A former roommate has enough underwear that she could go for 3 months or so without washing. Another friend I saw just last week mentioned that she hates doing laundry and has at least a 2-month supply of lingerie. Ewwwh! I haven’t counted my underwear but believe I could make it for 2-3 weeks although I wash my clothes every week faithfully. Yet another friend has 2 storage units, 3 bedrooms, and a house brimming to overflow (she’s rapidly approaching hoarding). She lives alone; her children are long grown. It’s not that I’m especially virtuous. I just don’t like piles. Piles overwhelm and defeat me. Doing laundry once-a-week helps keep me from feeling defeated…by laundry at least. (There are so many things I can’t control that I’m trying to control what I can.) My daughter has legions of glasses. She has kids…they go through glasses. But if she had fewer glasses, there’d be fewer to wash. (She also had quite a collection before the kids came.) What are the pros and cons of abundance vs. having enough? I was going to say scarcity but it really isn’t that. Having just enough means that you are I don’t know what the characteristic was that started the stockpiling behavior among my friends: While I enjoy shopping, I have always limited it even when I had more resources. After two stores, I’m done and have been known to sit in the mall or car with a book and read while waiting for my companions to finish their shopping frenzy. (I grew up being forced each weekend on day-long trips to many stores, uncomfortably squeezed in the backseat of the car with siblings and cousins.) I have gotten more and more tired of stuff. It is so easy to accumulate. Every year I manage to have stuff to donate to thrift stores despite trying not to accumulate. I want to be discriminating and find the right stuff as well as minimize new stuff so I don’t contribute more than is absolutely unavoidable to landfills. My current shopping style is to meander through one store I love, checking out the various sections, piling everything I want into my cart and then putting mostly everything back except the things I feel I need, the things I collect (red stuff for my kitchen, costume rings), and that the budget allows. (No shopping for you!) I have been known to go on a shopping trip with a friend and not buy one single thing (though I try not to go window shopping because it hurts my feelings when I can’t buy something) and I always see something when the money is tight. Forty or four? Which is right for you? If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:
forced encouraged to stay on top of things because there won’t be a clean towel or glass or bra if you don’t manage things efficiently. Having just enough forces you to tend to your resources carefully.
Was if having the resources to keep buying more?
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I Love Craig’s List
