I inherited my parent's pioneer spirit. You should see my pantry - full of cans of crushed tomatoes, dried beans, pastas, raisins, honey, you know, the basics. We won't starve. For about three years. In the midst of all of this clutter shuffling, I took a long look at exactly HOW much extra foodstuffs and soaps and spare toothbrushes and everything I'd stored up, and I don't know, but I'm curious to see how far we can go before we have to buy anything new. So I'm doing the Seinfeld. Do you remember the episode when Kramer takes the car out into the country to see how far it can go on "E"? It was like 200 miles. It was an hysterical episode. Why am I remembering that one? Because I want to see how far we can go on "E", but the E doesn't stand for Empty, it stands for Extra. How much extra do we have, and how does it feel as that extra padding, that cushion, that safety net, evaporates into the here and now, the current, the present?
It honestly makes me nervous just thinking about it all. I think we can go until spring with the soaps and most of the larder. Gees, larder - see? Pioneer spirit, I'm tellin' ya. Pioneers say 'larder'. Also probably root cellar, I'm not sure. I stored our extra potatoes in the root cellar.
What is the purpose of this exercise? It's an ongoing thing, my friends - this whole "what do you REALLY need, and how much extra do you need, and WHY?" My friend Melissa says she buys one handbag at a time, then wears it out, then buys another. I turn my head a little, trying to comprehend what she's saying. I never USED to have so many handbags, until Kari got me started on rotating handbags and the importance of having several at a time. But I'm NOT a several handbag girl, either. I don't know how to 'do' that. Likewise with too many pairs of shoes. I'm pretty good at the whole jacket thing, though, if I may be honest. So maybe just as I can only use one handbag at a time, I only use one soap at a time, and don't need 25 bars in the cupboard to make me feel safe. I counted around 70 bottles of my mom's perfume as I cleaned out her bathroom cupboard. I am down to 7, and that still feels like too much. I will not buy any more perfume until all of my perfume is used up. I have four bottles of lotions. Same thing.
I remember one year that I had a lot of credit card debt. This was a long time ago. I decided to just 'stop spending money' and in the course of a year, I was not only out of debt, but had managed to save $14,000. I remember not feeling the difference in that huge amount of spending difference. I don't remember feeling deprived during that year of spending less; I don't remember thinking, "Gosh, I didn't get this, or get to do that..." I felt the same. So I didn't NEED to spend that extra money. It wasn't about the money. Just like now. I like the feeling of knowing my checking account balance is the same yesterday as today because I haven't spent any money. I don't need to. There's nothing I need right now. Groceries, yes. Gas, yes. That's about it.
Will this all make a difference in my life now, billions of years after the whole big spending debacle? Yes, I know how to spell 'debacle' - I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I think it is already making a difference. The energy once reserved for swirling catalogs and fashion websites has now moved over into the larger picture of my life - am I happy with my home, with my work, with myself? No? Then I have time and space to do something about it all, and that is worth every not-buying-another-handbag to me. Sifting through the piles of lotions and soaps is clearing my path for the new in my life. I'm letting the extra go, and letting the new come in. I like it. I like it a lot. Squirrels are cute, but not that cute. Time to pick another animal for my totem. I'll get back to you on that.
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