Simple Living: Don’t Let Your Possessions Own You

How much time do you spend doing something?

For instance, how much time do you spend on your phone each day? How much time do you spend on your computer? On a particular hobby? In front of the tv?

Many things in life, are to be used as tools or entertainment. Tools are to be used and then put away – used for a specific purpose, and that is it. You usually don’t find someone walking with a screwdriver or a spatula, just because. They don’t own that person. They are merely tools.

Same is to be said for tvs, electronics, and even phones. But really, are they more than entertainment? Are you glued to certain device? To a specific piece of entertainment, that if you can’t immediately have it or put your hands on it to look something up, you panic? You start to worry and wonder? I have seen way too many people who are addicted to their phones!

I am trying to stay away as long as I can, from an iphone. Yes, my husband has one for work and it is nice to have at times. Especially when we do not know where we are going and a map does not give us clear directions. But for me, I use a cheap ole tracfone, that has the ability to text (can’t receive mass texts, which can be a problem), but I pay by the minute and have no contract. I am not stuck paying for minutes every month that I will not use and I am not addicted to it.

Now, one thing I do have a hard time putting down is my computer. As an organizing blogger, there is always “just one more thing” I could be doing. One more email to send, one more company to contact, one more post to write, etc. I have to set limits to myself and remember that even though this is a “job” for me (though I have a hard time considering it a job when I love it so much), I can’t let this own me. My computer is a tool – to be used when needed, but to not own me.

What do you own, that has more control over you than what you think? What do you have a hard time giving up for a week or even one day? What is that ONE thing? To live a simple life, means to live for more than your possessions. Seems like a given, but how many of us, truly are tied to more than what we need to be?