Packaging

This weekend we have been to visit my parents who live in the land of no internet.  The thought of being two whole days away from his life-line had my hubby running off to the shop to buy a mobile internet dongle.

Dongle acquired and with it an over-abundance of packaging.

I was more than a little shocked and flabbergasted at the amount of packaging on this tiny, not-especially-fragile piece of electronic equipment.  It comes in a hard plastic bubble, encased in thick, glossy box packaging in three layers and then a branded gloss-coated paper bag!  WOW! 

It begs the question WHY?

Sure it looks attractive, but is 'attractive' enough of a reason for such over-packaging?  I think not. Does anyone buy an internet dongle based on the appearance of the packaging?  None of the pictures in the advertising feature the packaging - perhaps it should be shown and we may adjust our purchasing decisons by avoiding the over-packaged product.

We are encouraged (read nagged incessantly) on a daily basis to resist plastic bags, to take our own canvas bags shopping and to avoid all forms of over-packaging on food and goods products.  Why oh why does this piece of equipment come so over-wrapped?  I can only think it is company vanity and certainly shows NO concern for our planet.

Well there is my little rant for the day.  I normally don't care so much about such things.  It is the abundance of advertising and big push to avoid unnecessary use of packing marketed so forcefully to the average consumer coupled with a consumer item so blatantly over-packaged which has got me a little hot under the collar.  Talk about clutter... planet clutter.  I may even be moved enough to get out of my apathy long enough to write to the offending company.

Layers

There are so many layers to keep peeling back in an ongoing quest to dee-clutter.  It is a task that is never done, but the reasons for that are many.
As I go through and put aside items to get rid of, I go through a series of stages.  It is more than the do I need/want this item?  Does it justify the space it occupies? etc.  It is difficult to pin-point exactly... It is freedom from having to store, maintain and work around the item, but it is more than that.  It is felt most at a deeper level.  I don't know if you would call it emotional or psychological, I suspect it is both AND some other aspect too.

I keep digging into why we hold onto stuff.  really why.  what hold on us does the stuff have?  To what degree do I want to be owned by my stuff?  What is it withini us, all of us, tht drives us to acquire?  and to keep on acquiring?  Is it ever enough?

The more physical space I create around me, the more thinking and emotional space I feel/experience. I experience freedom.  I experience peace.  Still I struggle to define it as there is more to it that eludes me.

I'm afraid that is the best I can currently describe it.

Larry, a character in the TV series "Numbers" expresses a similar thing when he decides to part with the acquisitions of a life-time.  Larry goes through various stages and his friends and colleagues think he is having some sort of mid-life crisis.  Perhaps he is.  Over many episodes he explores the freedom that he experiences from parting with 'stuff'.  Larry takes it much further than I would ever contemplate (like everything) but I can certainly understand some of what he describes.

My general goal is to free my life of unnecessary clutter.  How I determine what is necessary and what is unnecessary is an ever changing and developing thing.  One of my key ways of determining whether an item is necessary is how it affects my life.  Does keeping the item improve any aspect of my life?  There are items that I once thought were essential to keep, I now am much less certain and in many instances, I am certain that they do not enhance my life in any measureable way. 

Today I can give another tangible example of this process and where it has developed.

About 18 months ago, I culled over 800 books from our shelves.  800 books!  It still left us with many hundreds of books.  Since then we have culled several hundred more in several stages.  The last big cull was about a year ago as we were unpacking when we moved into our current home.

We have a couple of big bookshelves full of books.  I have asked my self and my family to consider how many times we have gone to the shelves AT ALL to access a book.  We have not accessed any books on the three shelves in question during the last year.  That is quite a statement.

We have not accessed ANY of the books on our shelves in the past year.

Why do we keep them?  The reasons are many and varied and today I have again been assessing the why question.  After consultation with hubby and teens, we have decided that we can part with quite a few more books.

The best part of 100 books from one bookshelf.  The shelf is still over half full.  There is not a single book here that I couldn't access if I really needed or wanted to through a library etc.  Conclusion - out they go.

 Now that is freedom.

Never say "I'll never..."

I'll never let my kids ... eat in the car; stay up late on a school night; eat junk food; spend hours on the internet... ... ... 
I'll never wear ... flares; paisley; 80's hair; etc
I'll never eat ...maccas; HJ's etc
I'll  never be one of those mothers ...

So many things we think we will never say or do.  Until we find ourselves doing exactly what we said we would never do.

I'll never make my kids do ...

Ha!

I'll never be one of those crazy cat ladies...

Ha, Ha.

How many of those things have I now done?  Hmmmm more than I like to admit.

I thought I would never be one of those cat ladies. 

That was before I had my cat Eddie.  I have always been a dog lover.
I still love dogs, especially my sweet boof Buddy.  My daughter loves cats and after many years of nagging (sigh another 'I'll never' when I eventually gave in and let her get a cat) we welcomed Charlie cat into our family.  He is a nice cat.  I like him and I managed to maintain my non-cat lady status.

It wasn't until I bought little Eddie who is a most unusual cat that I began to slip in my resolve to nvever be a cat lady.


I must admit I am thoroughly smitten with this little fur-ball.

Now I have gone all the way over the edge and turned into a cat-lady.

Eddie isn't well at the moment.  He has been lethargic and had a sore tail for the last couple of days.  Last night he got really distressed when we went to pick him up.  sigh.  That means it's time to take him to the vet for a check up.  Except this morning he was nowhere to be found and didn't come for breaky - not even the most precious sandwich tuna - yep human food.

Suddenly I am a cat woman but not just a cat woman.  I am a crazy cat woman!!!

yep I was worried and anxious about a cat.  Several anxious hours until he was found. 

And the verdict...  a tail-pull injury. How??? This little cat and his tail are frought, to say the least.
He had a fever and is now on pain meds and antibiotics.  Give him a week or so and he will be fine to run around again... and get his tail caught. It is only a matter of time before this cat uses up all his nine lives as far as that tail is concerned.

And it leaves me admitting that I am a crazy cat lady.  How long is it before I go all the way crazy and take up turning my home into a cat haven where humans are the minority and it stinks like cat urine?... NEVER.

A Fun Night

Last night hubby and I went to a social for his work.  It was a murder mystery dinner set in a Western salloon in 1873 where a gambling tournament is taking place.  I got to play "salloon girl B" and hubs was a gambler.

Yep. Here I am in all my western, saloon girl gear.  I had to laugh when I got this character as it is sooooo far from my regular life.  It was quite comical and I was having trouble getting my head around how I was going to dress up in such a costume.  I was quite pleased to find one that was at least somewhat modest.

Hubby made a fine gambler with his pack of cards, hat and costume. He didn't keep his vest on long as it was a warm night and he got too hot in a satin shirt and vest.  I should have made him one of those rope ties but, oh well.

hamming it up for the camera.

This pic was taken later in the evening. 

Everyone had made so much effort with their costumes, even those who didn't have a part to play in the drama.  There were over 40 people at the do and I managed to correctly 'guess' the murderer along with three other people. I got a "Smoking Gun" award for my efforts.

"Annabelle" is second from the left and she won the best dressed award. As you can see the others with her were all pretty fine.  Her hubby on the left was a "gentleman" and the other young lady was a "lady".  the young man was an "outlaw" who was suspected of the murder but was innocent and had an irrefutable aliby.  yes we did giggle much.

 "Salloon girl A" and "Mr Money" the bank manager.

The "crooked sherif" and in the background a cowgirl, gambler and salloon girl.

The notorious "Black Betty" - a scoundrel and a thief. In the background was "the cook", "victorious Vicki" one of the finalist gamblers and her hubby a cowboyas well as one of the other cowboys.

The "federal Marshall" in town to keep an eye on the gambling tournament and the crooked sherif and withhim is his "lady".
A fun and funny night was haad by all.  My P.S. is that 40+ people is too many for such a game as it isn't possible for all to fully participate.  I would like to ttry this again sometime with a much smaller number - around a dozen or so.