tully's Blog

This is an awesome post. I really admire your effort, and you inspired my downsizing. My wife thanks you, I thank you. I feel happier with less. I read a good quote:

 

"When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, 'Oh yes - I already have everything that I really need.'"

-Dalai Lama

Right ON, Jeff. While I haven't gone as completely crazy as you have, I AM slowly but surely paring down my stuff that I've started hoarding over the years. At one point I had 25 guitars, I think. Nuts! I'm down to 17 or 18, including 1 Bass and a few acoustics. I was just looking at some of them on the wall the other day, thinking, "I REALLY don't need a few of these!!" A couple more might be on the chopping block soon. Keep on Rockin, brother.

Testify!

I had a funny moment today.

I went looking for a nice desk, filing cabinet and book shelf to go into my new room. Just checking stuff out.

I need a smaller desk to fit in the smaller room

I saw a home office package I really liked and it was the right size. It was set up as a display.

Sitting on the shelf at eye level was a home crafty looking sign that said "All you need is less" !!!!!

Really struck a deep and resonating chord. I walked out and came back home.

What a funny sign to put in a retail store showroom.

 

@ Beagle216

Love that quote. Thankyou.

Less is more, to quote a cliche, and in this case it's working for you. It's always interesting to read your inner meditations.

 

As for myself, I live in 2 rooms, each 12' X 15'. In a space that small, you don't keep anything you don't use. I've been getting rid of books and putting them on kindle. I am replacing CDs with MP3s. I have 5 guitars and that's almost too many. Mostly, if I don't use it, I lose it. In this space, it's a necessity.

 

For about a year and a half, I've been working from home, so, since that started, I save 3 hrs a day in commuting time. Like you, I have a lot of time on my hands, in which I could be doing very productive things, instead I've been watching tv. My challenge now is to decrease tv watching and read/walk/play guitar more. It's a challenge to sit with so much space in time, watching yourself procrastinate and find excuses to not do what needs to be done. Life needs purpose, and we're the ones who have to come up with that.

Thanks for sharing, OP. Like many others that your post will resonate with, I too have found downsizing liberating in many ways and "rightsizing" as a (attainable) goal, empowering. A reoccurring theme in life, if you will. One of my fav movies, "Into The Wild" and one song in particular from its soundtrack, Society, are poignent commentary IMHO. Even though they are merely a movie and a song; little more than forms of entertainment.

Enjoy the time with your youngster before she leaves the nest

@ myoldfriend.

"Rightsizing"!!! Beautiful. Thanks for that.

Ive been contemplating that term ever since you posted.

It is the correct term for this thread?blog. Pondering the difference between downsizing and rightsizing has had a positive affect on me.

Cheers

I still love accumulating new gear! I love reading your posts Jeff it always seems like every endeavor you take on is rewarding. I have been building guitars with some guys lately and learning a lot, I'm enjoying the new direction but gear is piling up, maybe soon I will have to downsize as well!

Hey Marty, some things Ive taken on have been plain dumb and the rewarding part was extracting myself from the situation

 

Maybe start a blog or thread on these guitars you have been building. I'd be into it.

Never occurred to me that changing rooms would mean being with out a room for a while.

I havnt had a place to be for a week or so and no end in sight.

The decontamination process of my old room has begun.

Carpet half removed, ceiling and one previously dark brick wall painted, lighting done, electrician done 1/2 the power unwiring and 1/2 the rewiring, double glazing deglazed, doors that hadnt opened in 20yrs set free and made to swing again.

Me being me I got right into it and ended up paying the cost in pain killers and sent to sit on the side lines.

Meanwhile curtains are 3weeks away and carpet another 2weeks.

If I was trading rooms with a teenage boy It wouldve been done and dusted 2months ago and cost nothing.

Im sitting in here now and its really bright. Its quite light and airy. I dont know why I didnt do all this while I inhabited the room.

There was a bar in here made from the same bricks as three of the walls. It was about 10ft long 4ft high and about 4ft behind it. I made panels that closed it in and made the perfect amp isolation both. You could crank a 100w JCM800 through a412 in there and talk easily at conversational levels in the room

Ive knock all that down. I thought of all the people I knew who were envious of this facility and how the room had been used by others just so they could record their guitar tracks. Theres been some cool amps shoved in that cave and had mics stuck in front of them.

It all seemed important and crucial at the time. I cant remember even one of the songs or tracks.

So much energy spent, so much important business going on. I dont even know who some of those people were. I cant even remember some of their faces. Wonder who they were.

It was an intensely busy room and no real sign of any production for all the time that was spent in there.

Couple of songs I can remember that I like. They couldve been recorded in any room.

 

Im hanging out for the move to be complete so I can be in another room and spend intense hours doing nothing.... I really hope I dont let it work out that way.