LIFE INVENTORY FOR FENG SHUI BLISS

Do the words ‘life inventory’ sound like something you’d do with a counselor?

Why not get an early start and see how it goes on your own.

Make a list, write it down, and see if you need what you’ve got.

Then make a list for what you’re looking for.

Baby boomers are famous for their hoarding instinct? Just ask their kids.

Writers and bloggers are hoarders by nature, stashing arcane facts and ideas in their brain for future use.

Retired boomer is sitting on their pile and waiting for a reason to change.

But time passes and nothing changes so why do anything?

That’s how I ended up with more stuff than I’d planned.

When things change, they can change fast. One day your mom and dad are just down the road, the next day they’re gone.

Then what? Then you help sort their stuff and it feels like a life inventory.

My office is littered with re-purposed bedroom furniture from eighth grade, a book case, a desk, a cabinet.

I could replace it all with modern furniture, but I don’t. Why?

Because I remember getting this stuff and feeling pretty good about it when it was new, and I still do.

And it’s useful.

The idea of a life inventory is finding stuff you don’t feel so good about and changing.

 

The Material World Life Inventory

I write on a laptop, but I do have two old PCs, one used as a footrest under my desk.

I’ve got work on them, images on them I need to check, which will be tough since I don’t have a screen anymore.

There’s a box of cords under my desk, too, a desk that was once a work table in my wife’s old office.

It’s a nice table, a big table.

My boyhood bookcases sit on the table, with one on the lowboy file cabinet to the left.

They are full of stuff I need to cull, but if nothing happens to inspire me it’ll be my kids who will dump it like I should.

Just the idea of moving stuff out is paralyzing.

Have you ever had the night before garbage day excitement to fill up the bin?

Then reconsidered because you might be looking for this same stuff next week?

The weird thing about a houseful of stuff? I was away for three weeks and didn’t miss any of it besides my dog and my guitar.

So downsizing all my crap ought to be easy? Strike while the iron is hot?

I’ve got a crawl space full of stuff, a big garage full of stuff, storage off my bedroom with a big door, another in a bedroom with a small door, a hallway to the crawlspace full of stuff, file cabinets, dressers, closets.

Where to start? I’ve got to start since I’m not getting any younger and still remember the flood of stuff from parents and in-laws.

My plan: The wife is big on changing things for the better. Even if something isn’t broken, she’ll fix it.

She’s working on a big project that will disrupt the household for months. It’s an upstairs remodel project.

I’ve taken this as a chance to downsize and disrupt things even more.

One of our funny things together is rearranging furniture. She can’t be in the house when I decide to change things up. It’s too disturbing for her.

Since remodeling is disturbing to me, we’ve agreed to work it out. She remodels, I’ll rearrange.

She’s got a designer, I’ll find a Feng Shui advisor.

 

Declutter: Excessive clutter causes blocked chi. Let go of excess items that take up valuable space.

What does feng shui literally mean?

 

Here in Oregon we’ve got plenty of wind and water.

 

The Life Inventory Plan So Far

We’ve got three trophy cases from my mother in-law’s house full of ceramic stuff.

That’s not the problem. The problem is they’re in a room with wainscoting I like to see, but it’s blocked.

Solution? Put them together for a more unified look and remove the clutter. No one looks at the stuff, or goes into the room for anything but walking through.

Showcase them with more interesting things is the plan and free up the wainscoting.

This is a house with big rooms but you’d never know because of the way furniture clogs up the walkways.

When I’m done things will be more clear, more soothing, with better energy.

Or I’ll lose my nerve and nothing will change.

Now is the time to act because of the places I’ve been the last three weeks.

We’ve stayed in hotel rooms that varied from roomy and comfortable to ‘put our luggage in the bathtub for more room’ small.

They all had a bed and side tables, but nothing personal.

My goal isn’t to remove personality from the house, but just the stuff that says ‘Have you forgotten something?’

If I’ve got projects that haven’t been finished in twenty years, maybe it’s time to let them go along with the wood and hardware.

Once upon a time I made a set of shoji screens for a window that no longer exists.

Toss ’em, or hang them in a new location?

That’s the burden I’m carrying. 

I just read a post on twitter asking if anyone had certain items in their house like CD’s, DVD’s, file cabinets, a phone line, cable TV.

I’ve got VHS, cassettes, and more because you never know when you’ll need it.

This isn’t getting any easier now that I think about it.

Where would you start a life inventory?