Survey #248—Full Response from rowan

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What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book?- (aside from literally all of them) the overall strategy of looking at every object and every assumption (e.g. "well of course everyone needs to have a (fill in the blank)") about necessities.
- Evaluating objects by how much work they require to keep clean (the owl sculpture example).
- Overall not just askign "should I keep this?" but "WHY should I keep this?"
What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation?- I did not relate to Sasaki's emphasis on holding on to collections as evidence of personal attributes (being an intellectual, creative, etc)
Please share your favorite quotations or key takeaways from this book.- "The things you own end up owning you" from Fight Club movie
- At a certain point in your decluttering your should question "why am I getting rid of this item?" in the same way that at first you should as yourself "why am I keeping this item?"
- some people develop " 'get rid of everything' disease' "
- "Minimalism is a method, and a beginning."
When you hear the word “minimalism” used to describe a lifestyle, what do you think of?I think I first thought of it as an aesthetic, or living out of a backpack. But I think the important thing is that I don't feel Sasaki is advocating that everyone live as he lives, or even that everyone should be a minimalist, more that everyone should examine their stuff (while saying that probably most of our stuff hinders, rather than supports, our current life).
“The things you own end up owning you.”* To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? How is it relevant to your stuff?I totally agree. Even though I have always had far less stuff than anyone else I knew, in the past the volume was still a burden (especially to the friends and acquaintances I got to help me move - I feel particularly bad about that. I had not thought to examine my assumption that everyone loves to help people (as I do)). But (for anyone who is reading this) please do not think I am living with any material deprivation (I have plenty of clothes and bedding to keep me warm, wonderful books to read, computers to watch tv/movies and useful videos, lectures, audiobooks, etc).
Future topics

Discovering a life beyond:
- rearranging our stuff
- cleaning up our stuff
- looking for new stuff to acquire
- climbing over / wading through our stuff
- digging for stuff from our stuff mountain / swamp
- (etc, etc)

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