Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Mesquite Hugger Opposites Day: Lots of Free Stuff or Pursue Minimalism?


Yesterday was a day of much inspiration in the Mesquite Hugger office complex. Besides the Treehugger article about carbon-eating gardens and a really long Endless-Sphere thread about the validity and controversy over the Storm Ebike, my brain was also kharmic-ly b*&^%-slapped by two more articles. These two were about the stuff in our lives.

The first came from Keith. He and I have both been busy lately, so we mostly communicate by sending each other cool articles. He definitely won this round. I don't post them often, but I follow articles about dumpster diving. They always seem to play into the epidemic of food waste. Well, he sent me one about a guy in Austin who dumpster dives behind non-food retailers. It mentioned finding lots of profitable stuff for resale and for building cool stuff like electric mini-choppers and electric skateboards. And it dealt in financial numbers significant enough to put a Mesquite Hugger family member or two through college. (Wowser!) It's a long article, but definitely worth the read - and a little too inspirational for a guy who loves alleys like I do. It came from Wired magazine. (Don't quit your day job!)

 
While reading it, I could just picture the mountains of cool stuff one could garner for virtually no money. My dreams of minimalism slammed into the stony mountain of stuff!
 
Then I ran across an article on Green Living Ideas that offered me a bit of help.
 
 
This article challenged me to do things like declutter my digital life, participate in a no-complaint day, and clean out my closet. It also encouraged me to downsize my beauty collection, but I wasn't sure if I should give up my soap, my shampoo, my deodorant, or my toothpaste. (My officemate would encourage me to skip that particular step.) Overall, however, if you are considering doing some kind of cleanse, a person could do vastly worse than this 30 day list.
 
So, what's it gonna be? Put on the snorkel and flippers in preparation for diving OR invest some quality time in cleaning out the old brain? Whichever you choose, may it help us all to have a better life.

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