A little over six years ago when I moved to the East Coast, I made a decision to start eliminating stuff from my life. The relatively little I had was still too much for me.

I was aware that the future job market probably meant I (and others) would need to be more mobile; able to pull up stakes and relocate on short notice. So downgrading made good sense to me. Years earlier I’d made some major changes in my life (like becoming pesce-vegetarian) so to me it seemed like a continuation of some unfinished business.

With that in mind, the first thing I did was get rid of my furniture. To this day I have nothing more than a desk, a chair, a drawing table, and a simple wire shelf unit for an old television. That’s it.

Similarly, I’ve gone through most of my belongings, eliminating that which is unnecessary or of no significant sentimental value. I’m not yet finished. The amount of junk collected over a lifetime is truly amazing; and I’m far from what anyone would call a packrat. Hopefully I’ll have reached a satisfactory level of non-ownership this year.

So it’s with interest that I caught a post over on Brand Noise (Link) pointing out an apparent trend(?) similar to my own behavior. I have to admit though, what’s being reported is pretty lame imo. A pact to not buy anything for only six months? Piece a cake.

Why blog about this? Simple. Just because I want to eliminate the anchors in my life doesn’t mean I don’t like nice things. Far from it. I just value my freedom more. I simply want physical objects that are truly important and worth the hassle of ownership. The rest can exist in a virtual space as far as I’m concerned. If I get really attached to it, I’ll have it fabbed.