Published: April 15, 2012
Words: 17,589 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476398617

Short description

Look around you right now: how much 'stuff' do you have? This zine is all about chucking stuff out, resisting buying new stuff, and looking at the processes of how we engage with stuff along the way. I consider the 'buy-ology' of why we desire and buy what we do in the first place and also 'flow': the exact opposite of the desire-acquire cycle. If you hoard stuff, or purge, this will interest you.

Extended description

Decluttering
Recently, I gave away or threw out a lot of stuff (and not just a few old clothes, but some expensive, supposedly important, stuff too – my SCUBA gear, the entire contents of my garage, a fancy Italian coffee machine, heaps of clothes, a space-station-like barbeque, my only TV, some furniture, and all the crap I was keeping for ‘one day’). My house is hardly Zen, but it, and my head, feel less cluttered.

Desiring and acquiring
I’ve only been in Australia seven years and I didn’t start out with much stuff; most of what I have I’ve acquired along the way. Since I’ve been getting rid of things, and resisting buying new things, I’ve been thinking and reading about why we covet and buy the stuff we do. And that’s been revelatory.

Owning
Now that my stuff is pared down to the things I actually want, I’ve been thinking about how to store it, use it, and display it (because so much of stuff is a symbol of who we are and want to be, or want to be seen: t.. (Read more) Decluttering
Recently, I gave away or threw out a lot of stuff (and not just a few old clothes, but some expensive, supposedly important, stuff too – my SCUBA gear, the entire contents of my garage, a fancy Italian coffee machine, heaps of clothes, a space-station-like barbeque, my only TV, some furniture, and all the crap I was keeping for ‘one day’). My house is hardly Zen, but it, and my head, feel less cluttered.

Desiring and acquiring
I’ve only been in Australia seven years and I didn’t start out with much stuff; most of what I have I’ve acquired along the way. Since I’ve been getting rid of things, and resisting buying new things, I’ve been thinking and reading about why we covet and buy the stuff we do. And that’s been revelatory.

Owning
Now that my stuff is pared down to the things I actually want, I’ve been thinking about how to store it, use it, and display it (because so much of stuff is a symbol of who we are and want to be, or want to be seen: the link between stuff and identity came up a lot during this process). I’m still a long way from the show-home ‘clean lines’ of design magazines: it’s more ordered complexity than simplicity; more aesthetic than ascetic. But it works. And this zine is about all of this ... stuff.
(Less)

Tags

desire, marketing, flow, advertising, branding, materialism, minimalism, hoarding, clutter, diderot, acquisition, clear out, freecycle, voluntary simplicity

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Reviews

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Review by: B.J. Price on April 30, 2012 :
Recommended reading and doing.
(review of free book)

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