Category: Essays

Ever heard the phrase “Dress for the Job you want”? Well, this applies to all things we want to do/be.

Often do I hear people in their older years wishing they were younger, wishing they had more energy, wishing they were quicker, sharper. But then I see the same people unwilling to do any activities that would involve using said energy and abilities. One minute I hear “Aaaaah to be young”, and the next “I’m way too old to do that.”

On the other hand, I have also seen people in the same age bracket getting as involved as they can, in as many activities as they can. They always seem to find the energy to do all they want. I have been a cyclist for about eight years now, and you would be amazed what I have seen 70+ year old men do on a bicycle. Hmmmmmm (do you see where I am going here?).

If we want to stay young, energetic, and sharp, then we have to DO what young energetic sharp people do. Here are some ideas:

• Dancing
• Bicycling
• Hiking
• Swimming
• Running
• Power Walking

These are just a few. There are literally hundreds more ideas. If we want to stay young, we have to keep our bodies and minds in a constant state of motion. This is the only way to “slow down the clock.” Avoid the couch and rocking chair. Once we sit down and get comfortable, that is when we get sloooow. Then we really do age.

How much stuff do we have to take with us wherever we go? Every time we leave the home we have to gather all the supplies we need for the outside world. Even if we are just going to a friends house, or the grocery store we still need to carry:

• Keys
• Wallet/purse/pocketbook
• Mobile device

 

This is a lot! And all these things are likely bulkier than they need to be. How much stuff within these three areas can be purged due to lack of use.

 

Keys:

Besides the keys themselves, many people have other nick knacks, and member card tags (bar coded) on their key chain.

For starters, we can take off all the useless keys that we don’t use that often (less than weekly); put them on a separate keychain that we leave on the key hook at home (or whatever we use as a holder) for when we finally need them.

As far as knick knacks are concerned, lose em; or maybe keep one so we can identify our keys in a lineup.

Member card tags are important. Me ….. I be damned if I don’t get the benefit that membership offers me at my local grocery store. Modern mobile technology however enables us to enter these member tags into our mobile device for use. There are plenty of apps that serve this function. Boom! Just like that, member tags are gone.

 

Wallet/Purse/Pocketbook

I don’t think I need to mention the receipts, old business cards, and “Subway, Free sub after 5 subs purchased” garbage that needs to be discarded. Well I just did. Membership cards? …. see above. In the end, just like with your keys, anything that is not used at least weekly can be put in a separate area that is easily accessible when we need it. A second wallet left at home if you will. In the end all we should really have with us is our drivers license, A credit card, ATM/debit card, cash, and just a few (no more than five) commonly used items.

I do acknowledge that there are some things we have that which we don’t use often, but are there for emergency circumstances; and we always need to be prepared. Emergency cash, emergency credit card, emergency hygiene supplies. I suggest that those things be left in our vehicle. After all, wherever we are, our vehicle is not too far away. Personally I use my cars visor pouch and glove box just for that purpose.

I recently did a “carry-on minimizing” myself and realized I could combine things. This realization started with my membership tags. But when I minimized my wallet down I came to the conclusion that I could combine my wallet and Mobile device together. That is, keep my mobile in a mobile wallet where I would also store all my usual wallet items. And there we have it …. two carry-ons become one.

 

This image here now represents my total carry-on supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

Just as a side note (or reminder), keep in mind that a modern mobile device can serve as a replacement for most of the things we carry on us when we are out.

The very first possession we acquire in this life is our body. It is also the most important possession, as it is the vessel we inhabit. It is the ultimate multi-purpose tool. Perfect in design and function. Capable of doing marvelous works. But just like any possession we own, it can get lost in the sea of all the other possessions we own. So many of us don’t give it it’s due maintenance because we are too busy using and maintaining all our other stuff.

There just doesn’t seem enough time in the day/week/month to earn a living, mow the lawn, cook, grocery shop, clean the house, paint the dining room, laundry, dishes, bills, wash/wax the car, and theeeeen exercise. So many of us tend to cut the last one off the list. We do this because we consider maintaining these other material possessions necessary, but maintaining our own bodies as optional.

Perspective: We do not need a yard, car, house, lots of clothes, and dishes, so it should go without saying that we certainly do not need to maintain these things. We DO however need to thrive, to be healthy, to live. Make no mistake, exercise is absolutely necessary to maintain ones health. No, taking care of our bodies is not optional.

TIME TO RE-PRIORITIZE PEOPLE.

As if we needed another reason to live a minimalist lifestyle, how is this for one: Freeing our lives of unnecessary clutter gives us our time back to focus on using and maintaining the possessions that are most important to us. Most notably, our body.