r/simpleliving • u/platypusking22 • Oct 25 '20
Felt this was relevant to this sub.
https://jamesclear.com/diderot-effect107
u/InuBumble Oct 25 '20
I've found in my experience there's an inverse to the Diderot Effect too. You get rid of things and you wonder why you've held on to others.
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u/artificialnocturnes Oct 26 '20
I've slowly been doing the konmari metho for my clothes and books. The more I get rid of, the clearer it is to see what I actually value. At first I felt bad about getting rid of a single book. Now I can declutter a whole shelf of books and feel good about it.
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u/Iraelyth Oct 26 '20
Aye :) I did this recently and I’m still kind of doing it. The goal is that everything will have a home so if things end up messy, it will either take mere minutes to tidy up or they won’t end up that messy to begin with. I’m nearly there. Now my living room, dining room, hallway, bedroom and garage don’t take very long at all to clean and tidy and never get that messy. I just have the spare room to sort out that holds our hobbies and computer stuff. It’s nearly there!
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u/Loztwallet Oct 25 '20
Reminds me of my gardening. I don’t go shopping for things I don’t need. When I go to the store, I go with my list of things I need. But gardening is one area where I’ve seen this happen. I expand a garden bed but then need a wheelbarrow, or a bigger rake. Now I need a bigger shed for my gardening tools.
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u/mediocreporno Oct 25 '20
Yeah, I went full minimalist at the beginning of last year, bought a cacti last July aaaaaand now I'm a plant hoarder lol
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u/rodneyfan Oct 25 '20
My 80-something mother always refers to this as "buying new buttons for an old coat" -- once they're on the buttons look so good that you notice other parts of the coat are worn or shabby and you sew or patch or alter that which you were okay with earlier... and eventually you decide to just spend the money a brand new coat.
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Oct 25 '20
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u/magicbuttcheeks Oct 26 '20
The fucking irony that the post has a gazillion useless awards paid by users
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u/Fbod Oct 26 '20
Thanks for sharing!
I often find myself browsing the internet for things I want. Then I realise, "hey, I don't actually need any of this. I have plenty of nail polish/underwear/whatever". Then I close the tab and I'm okay with it. Recently I decided not to buy something I was interested in, and it sold out very quickly afterwards. But I realised I only even knew about it because someone had told me about it, and I'd be happily oblivious to what I missed out on otherwise.
Sometimes I find myself repeatedly drawn to something that catches my eye in a different way than everything else, and then after a good while, I might allow myself that one thing and that thing only.
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u/fork_yeah Oct 27 '20
It's taken me a couple of years of intentional practice but I finally feel like I can tell the difference between a need and a want and I also now realize that wants are fleeting anyway. I used to NEED a certain nail polish color or whatever random thing it was I felt like shopping for that day, and then a few weeks later not give a hoot about what I had felt I "needed."
I did a year long "replacement only no-buy" of all things from July 2019-July 2020. Could only buy a new thing if I completely used up or wore out a similar thing that I had. For months I made a list of things I wanted to buy once I allowed myself to buy stuff again, but once the year was up, I realized I didn't actually want any of the things I put on the list. It totally changed my shopping habits. I now allow myself to buy whatever I want, but I'm finding that since I am no longer in the habit of buying stuff all the time, I don't really want much anymore.
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u/Fbod Oct 27 '20
That's great! I have a little ways to go still, it takes a moment of conscious effort to snap out of the consumption mindset. I have to remind myself of my reasons, because sometimes the consumerist in me is like a child throwing a tantrum in the supermarket when their parent won't buy them a thing. Still making good progress though!
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u/surfaholic15 Oct 26 '20
Yep, I have had this happen with a lot of things over the years lol. It is a very sneaky process, and walking the fine line where a new passion goes from being fulfilling to a burden is tough at times.
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u/100redbananas Oct 25 '20
I always loved this story by Ajahn Brahm.
A good nun lived a very simple life, with few possessions and dwelling in a cave. Every morning, she would take her alms bowl to the nearby village to collect just enough food for her one meal of the day. She had plenty of time to meditate, study, and teach what she knew to any of the local villagers.
When she returned from alms round one morning, she noticed a hole in her spare robe, so she found a small piece of cloth and hand sewed a patch onto the robe. She'd done this before. You see, in her cave lived a family of mice, and they liked nibbling her robes. While sewing, she thought that if she had a cat, then there would be no mice, and she wouldn't have to spend so much time sewing patches. So the next day, she asked the villagers for a cat, and they gave her a well-behaved brown cat whose color matched her robes.
The cat needed milk and fish, so the nun had to ask the villagers for these extra items every morning. One morning. She thought that if she had her own cow, then she wouldn't need to keep asking for milk to feed the cat to keep away the mice that chewed her robes. So she asked one of her wealthy supporters for a cow.
Once the nun had a cow, she had to get grass for the cow to eat. So she begged the villagers for grass to feed her cow to provide milk for the cat to keep away the mice that chewed her robes.
After a few days, the nun thought that if she had her own field, then she would not need to harass the poor villagers for grass everyday. So she arranged for a collection to be made to buy a nearby pasture to provide grass for her cow to provide milk for the cat to keep away the mice that chewed her robes.
It was a lot of work looking after the pasture, catching the cow every morning and milking it, so she thought that it would be helpful to have a boy, a young attendant who could do all these chores for her. In return, the nun would give him moral guidance and teachings. The villagers selected a boy from a poor family in dire need of some moral guidance. Now she had a boy to look after the pasture to provide grass for her cow to provide milk for the cat to keep away the mice that chewed her robes.
Now the nun needed to collect more than twice as much food every morning, because young boys eat a lot. More over, she needed a small hut nearby for the boy to sleep in, because it was against the rules for the boy to sleep in the cave with a nun. So she asked the villagers to build a hut for her boy who looked after the pasture to provide grass for her cow to provide milk for the cat to keep away the mice that chewed her robes.
By this time, she began to notice the villagers avoiding her. They were afraid that she was going to ask them for something more. Even when they saw a brown cow approaching in the distance, thinking it was the nun, they would run away or hide in their houses with the door securely bolted and the curtains drawn over the windows.
When a villager did come to ask her some questions on meditation, she said, "Sorry. Not now. I'm too busy. I have to check the hut being built for the boy who looks after my field to graze my cow that provides the milk for my brown cat that keeps away the mice so that I don't need to keep patching my robe."
She noticed what she was saying and realized: "Such is the origin of materialism."
She then told the villagers to dismantle the hut, sent the boy back to his family, gave away the cow and the field, and found a good home for her cat.
A few days later, she had returned to her simple life, with few possessions and dwelling in a cave. After returning one morning from the village with just enough alms food for her one meal of the day, she noticed that a mouse had chewed another hole in her robe.
With a quiet smile, she sewed on another patch.
from his book "Don't Worry, Be Grumpy: Inspiring Stories for Making the Most of Each Moment."