practice discardia

I was able to successfully move to New Orleans with only the contents of my Nissan Sentra. That was almost 2 months ago. Since then I’ve received a couple of care packages and bought groceries and books but not much else. I don’t need much else, except maybe more books and some local art to hang on my walls and a teaching job by Christmas.

I did buy a bike, but I bought it for $25 and fixed it up and it’s dead useful for riding around town. I can head down to the Quarter whenever I have a spare hour or two and browse books, take pictures, go out to lunch, dodge tourists, eat pralines, whatever. It’s far more convenient than driving everywhere.

I think I can count this one as done. I don’t have much to discard anymore.

I’ve decided to modify this just to include things I get rid of. Acquiring new things will not add to my total, but I will try to make the things I get rid of things I don’t use or things that are broken, and make the things I acquire things that are especially attractive, are locally made, or that are particularly useful.

That said, I still have a long ways to go.

discarded: 1 bag of trash from cleaning my room, 1 bag of leis through freecyclers, unsubscribed from at least 4 political groups whose emails I never read, 2 All-County band CDs from high school (gave to my mom)
acquired: 1 skirt, 2 shirts, 2 Morning 40 CDs, 2 used books from the library (25 cents apiece), necklace from a local art fair

That’s not even counting race premiums.

I need to start going through my room more thoroughly and getting rid of stuff I don’t use.

EDIT: Make that 321 things. I remembered that I gave away 3 boxes of race committee supplies on Saturday.

I want to be able to move to New Orleans with only what will fit in my Nissan Sentra. I don’t need any more than that. New Orleans is where I really had it hammered home to me how nonessential material things are. A week’s worth of gutting houses and throwing a good amount of residents’ material “stuff” out for trash pickup will do that to ya.

I can buy furniture once I get there.

I cleaned out my email address book and deleted 17 contacts that I don’t keep in touch with anymore. Nothing like a springlike day for spring cleaning.

While buying my brother’s birthday present at a local used book store, I couldn’t resist buying my own copy of Dracula. It was $1.48, so it was a minor transgression all things considered.

The goal is to get rid of 365 things in the 365 days starting March 1st. If I give away one thing I get to subtract, if I acquire anything I have to add to that number.

As of this afternoon I stand at 340. I gave away 23 pieces of clothing and mailed 1 book to a friend who’s still working at Emergency Communities. I also left a pair of sneakers at EC.