Originally Posted by Katsunami
I've had it. I'm shrinkifying my life.
I have the 'problem' that I'm interested in too many things. Everything I do basically requires too much time: playing chess and go, playing organ and piano, studying for a second degree. Besides that, I also like to read books, watch movies, and play games. As I said, I basically don't have time to be bored.
Also, because of circumstances, I have two TV's, an 8 year old laptop, an 8 year old desktop, a new laptop, two monitors, and two audio systems (one connected to the old desktop, and a hi-fi one). From the past, I have two camera's and five lenses, as between 2004-2009 and 2011-2014, photography was a major hobby.
After thinking about it, I came to the following conclusion: I'm mediocre at most of my interests except at studying for the extra degree, because I have too many, and there is too much technology that is either out of date, or doesn't get used enough.
The solution is easy: Quit it, sell it, or throw everything out of the window. I'm going to drastically downsize.
- Organ vs. Piano use: 20% vs. 80%. The organ goes. My music tastes with regard to playing have shifted drastically; Movie themes and Broadway pieces are not fit for the Hammond drawbars. I still think the Hammond is a beautiful instrument, especially in a song mix, but as a solo instrument, I came to prefer the piano + orchestral sounds.
- Chess vs. Go: 5% vs. 95%, for the last 5 years. I'll only study Go from now on, and drop Chess to playing casually, if I feel like it.
- Reading, listening to music, playing games, and watching movies will obviously all stay, but in that order. I'll uninstall all games I have and archive all of them and the save games, leaving only the one game I'm playing installed. I'm not going to play multiple games at once anymore.
- I'll only keep the new laptop, the old laptop as backup, the bigger TV, and hi-fi system. Everything else will be sold or given away.
While doing that, I'll throw out everything else I don't need anymore... like 10 year old computer stuff such as cables, boxes, etc. I'll also wipe unneeded data from the laptop, update all the backups, and only keep what I need/want. (Which is, basically, my music library, e-book library, and important documents.... and that's it.)
I'm not going totally minimalist, but I have the feeling that I'll only be keeping 20 or 25% of the stuff that I have now. The goal is that, if I need/want to move (which is a possibility in the near future) I can fit everything in one van... and if I really wanted to, to be able to sell everything except the piano + stand, which can be disassembled and shipped in a flight case. The only other things I'd then need to move would be my two laptops, e-reader, and tablet which can be done with a trolly.
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