"The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
Funny, isn’t it when you have a saying or a thought rumbling around in your mind but you just can’t seem to remember all the right words?
In the old days, it could take ages to locate the errant verse. First, you would go to the library, locate the right book in the card catalogue, find the book on the shelves and then read through pages and pages of stuff before you found whatever it was you were looking for.
Today, with only a bit of the thought in my brain, I keyed in the words I remembered and presto, there was the “rest of the story”. I was surprised to read that “A Child’s Garden of Verses” was written by Robert Louis Stevenson!
But I digress.
What we really wanted to write about today was simplicity – “getting back to basics”. It was this verse that brought to mind the vast amount of “stuff” that is out there and made us think about how little we really need.
We always seem to be looking for places to store all the stuff we’ve acquired and each year, the piles get higher and our storage space shrink. We are still enticed by low prices and the inevitable lure of getting a deal.
But, is it really a deal when you purchase something at a low price – if you don’t need it? After all, how many_____________ (fill in your own blank) does a person really need? It’s time to sort through everything you have and figure out what you want, uses and need.
It’s been said that we wear 20% of the clothes in our closets, 80% of the time.” So, if you don’t know where to start your downsizing, we’d suggest starting with your closet(s). Find the items you love to wear and make sure they make you look absolutely fabulous! Make sure they are in good repair and then…. be ruthless with the rest.
The best time to simplify your closets is at the beginning of a new season. That way, when you donate clothes to your favourite charity, they are in season and can be enjoyed right away.
To paraphrase the quote at the beginning of this note, “the world is so full of a number of things...” with less, we should all be as happy as kings!
