Do you remember the Steve Martin movie, “The Jerk“? The part where he started losing everything he owns and he says; “Well I’m gonna to go then! And I don’t need any of this. I don’t need this stuff, and I don’t need you. I don’t need anything. Except this…[picks up an ashtray] And that’s the only thing I need is this. I don’t need this or this. Just this ashtray… And this paddle game. – The ashtray and the paddle game and that’s all I need… And this remote control. – The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that’s all I need… And these matches.” etc… (quote taken from imbd.com website).
Well that’s kind of whats been going on with me as I’m going through the house trying to figure out what to sell and what to put into storage. As we have been selling things that we really enjoyed having we have also realized that we don’t need those things to make us happy. They are all just “things” and for the first time in about a year I have been able to park my car in the garage. That feels amazing!! Not only that, but its money coming in and that feels even better!
Minimizing our life feels so good. It’s all bitter-sweet letting go. I thought I would miss these things, but honestly I feel a sense of freedom as I sell things. Yesterday we sold Allan’s man table (the Sobro coffee table). It had a refrigerator and charging ports along with bluetooth and speakers. He LOVED it and we sold it at a great price for the buyer. It was a loss and I am sure he was sad to let it go but we know that our upcoming adventure will give us so many more memories than that table would give us.
From this point on Allan and I have decided not to buy each other “things” and start giving each other “experiences” instead. We would prefer to have things that are either drinkable (a nice bottle of wine) or eatable (dinner at a nice restaurant), or an experience or adventure to create more memories.