ellejohara

Decluttering My Digital Life

20100308.2121 #blog

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but my virtual life is as badly cluttered as my real-world life. I have multiple websites, I’m signed up on numerous social media networks, I have several email addresses, among other things of the digital nature. All this electronic falderal stretches me out, as Bilbo Baggins says, “like butter across too much bread.” Just how many email addresses, websites, phone numbers, and social networks do I really need in order to stay in contact with my friends?

I remember a time not so long ago when if you wanted to make a call, you had to do it on a land line from a static location. These antiques didn’t have text messaging, and many of them didn’t have voicemail either. If you wanted someone to leave a message, you either had a friend or family member answer the phone and write a note, or you broke down and got yourself an answering machine. Yet even voicemail and the answering machine were limited in their abilities. They were irrevocably tethered to the land line. Just like making a call, you had to be in the same room as the answering machine to listen to your messages. And you know something? I was okay with that.

I admit that I am a bit of a techno-fetishist. I love gadgets and technology, and I will go out and buy the latest digital toy even if I don’t even have a legitimate use for it. This has been true of my iPod, iPod Touch, MuVo, cell phone, assorted video game systems, and other little digital toys. I don’t actually need these things, I want these things, because I have a weakness for gadgets. The same holds true for online services, although I do manage to exert a modicum of temperance before I fall into the trap of signing on to a new social network. Notice that I said a “modicum” of temperance.

Now I have online accounts with at least a dozen different services, probably even more than that. The biggest and most well-known of these services is Facebook. I signed on to Facebook about three years ago when I was working at the University of Oregon Outdoor Program. I didn’t want to do it at first, but I got talked into it, and it wasn’t long before I became a Facebook junkie. I made regular status updates so that all my friends could know what I was doing on a moment by moment basis. I never stopped to consider this question: Does anyone actually care?

Being able to instantly contact anyone or everyone in your virtual black book has become the epitome of twenty-first century cyber-narcissism. Cell phones constantly ringing or chiming with text messages have become a status symbol indicating that you have become important enough to be a person worth knowing. Friends on a Facebook list numbering in the thousands isn’t so much an account of how many people you actually know, but rather a measuring stick to determine popularity and self-importance. I regularly clear out my Facebook friends list, and unfriend people I haven’t spoken to in a great deal of time. It’s nothing personal, though some interpret an unfriending as something gravely serious. Why? Because their popularity list drops by one, and nobody wants to be unpopular…

Except perhaps me. I’ve never wanted to get lost in this popularity contest. Back in the days before cell phones, we had sheets of index paper with names and phone numbers written down on them. Whoever had the most names and numbers was clearly the most popular. My phone list would barely fill a Post-It note, and I was okay with that largely because I’ve never been tremendously comfortable talking on the phone.

In the interest of decluttering my life, and also escaping the rat race of popularity I got myself into by signing on to all these different social media networks, I plan on eliminating my cell phone plan entirely, and reducing the number of social networks I’m on down to two at the most: Facebook and Twitter. (It’s very likely that I will drop my Facebook account entirely, but I haven’t decided just yet.) I’ll also need to go through my myriad email addresses and see if there are some I can eliminate.

I hope that by clearing out this digital clutter I’ll be able to focus on what really matters in my life, and perhaps reconnect with some actual friends rather than simply read their latest status update.

Go ahead and, like, tell me your opinion man. »

The Challenge of Actually Getting Rid of Stuff

20100304.1320 #blog

It’s day four of CT Club, and I’m happy to report that I’ve put in at least 400 minutes so far of zenification time (Rule #4). Starting big and going small (Rule #5), I’ve managed to clear out obvious trash and recycling, unneeded stuff, and unwanted stuff. Right now, since I don’t have access to my car, I have these piles of stuff neatly organized into a recycling pile, a donate pile, and (sigh) a garbage dump pile. I’m trying to avoid actually “throwing stuff away” because while it might be junk to me, someone who is much less minimalistic than me might actually have a use for it.

I’ve created some base categories (Rule #8) for organization. These are: 1) Office 2) Home 3) Etc. These categories should be pretty straightforward, but I’m going to go over them anyway. Office stuff includes art supplies, computer gadgets, desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and that lot. Basically it includes all the tools I need to 1) do my website work, and 2) draw my comics and illustrations. These are activities which are important to me, so it’s vital that my user interface for these activities is as uncluttered as possible.

Figure A. My uncluttered workstation.

Home stuff includes all the essentials for basic daily living. That would include such things as bed and bedding, bathroom stuff, and clothing and shoes. I have very few clothes to begin with. Just today, I marveled at how I could finish my laundry in only two hours. When I was younger and had more clothes, laundry could sometimes be an all-day affair! Also, since I don’t have my own place, I don’t have to worry about home furniture. I don’t own a dresser, as most of my clothes I hang up in the closet. The majority of my furniture actually falls into the “Office” category anyway. The largest piece of furniture in my “Home” category is my futon. (No frame. I don’t need one.)

Figure B. My bed is a Transformer!

Based on my above descriptions, one might think that I was already living a pretty minimalistic lifestyle. I’ve always tried to keep the amount of stuff I own down to a reasonable level, but I can always go less. I used to have a dresser. When I realized that I neither used it nor needed it, I gave it away. It was very liberating! However, I haven’t yet addressed the third category: The dreaded “Et Cetera”! Etc (pronounced “etsy”), as one might expect, contains everything that doesn’t fit into the “Office” or “Home” categories. If it can’t help me make a website, draw a comic or illustration, or assist me in my basic daily living, then it goes into the “Etc” category, and is effectively crap I can give away. The thing is, this category includes like my books, music, bicycle gear, camping gear, rock climbing gear, juggling sticks, and lots of other things up to and including my loving teddy bear Kingsley (pictured above guarding my bed/couch).

The “Etc” category is going to be the toughest to assess. I may have to divide it up into further categories and decide what it is that truly matters to me. What do I enjoy doing that I actually do? For example, I have climbing shoes, a chalk bag and some ‘biners, but the last time I went climbing was two years ago. How much does climbing really matter to me if I haven’t done it in that long? This is the kind of thing I’ll be addressing when I start tackling my “Etc” category. And that’s when I’ll really know how hard it can be to get rid of my stuff.

Go ahead and, like, tell me your opinion man. »

The Rules of CT Club

20100302.1111 #blog

Yesterday, 1 March 2010, I set out to accomplish a goal that I’ve been attempting to do periodically since I was kid. I want to reduce the amount of stuff I own and live a minimalistic lifestyle free from gross consumerism. Last yeor, I stumbled upon a blog post called the 100 Thing Challenge. Can you live your life with only 100 things? The rules are flexible to suit any varying degree of minimalism: from austere to cozy-yet-still-minimalist. With the challenge set, and the rules at my discretion, I have begun a journey that will take me to a clutter-free home, but a clutter-free body and soul as well.

I’ll be calling the 100 Thing Challenge “CT Club” since it’s faster to type and more fun to say. The C comes from the Roman numeral for 100.

Here are my rules (so far) for attaining my 100 Thing goal:

Rule 1: I will blog about CT Club.
Rule 2: I will blog about CT Club.
Rule 3: The rules are at my discretion, and can be edited or eliminated as needed.
Rule 4: I will dedicate at least 100 minutes a day to decluttering.
Rule 5: Start large, finish small. It’s easier to get rid of big things than it is to get rid of smaller, sometimes more nostalgic things.
Rule 6: There is no ~~Rule 6~~ nostalgia!
Rule 7: Stay on target. Don’t lose focus on little distractions. (Social media, I’m looking at you.)
Rule 8: Create base categories of activities I enjoy and assess your stuff around these categories.
Rule 9: If several smaller things can be reasonably contained within a single larger thing, then I can count the whole group as one thing. (I have to justify my books and music somehow.)

I had some more, but life’s little distractions erased them from my short-term memory. No problem though.

With a base set of rules in place, I can get to decluttering. I’ll keep you appraised.