Since I was young, I have always enjoyed a spring/fall/winter/whenever cleaning. I think my mother taught me the joys of tidying up (way before Marie Kondo) and getting rid of what no longer serves. Although my brain stresses over what actually happens to all that stuff we "take to Goodwill" or drop in those bins near the grocery store, I keep trying to find homes for the things I don't use/want.
Then, it was 2020, and I was stuck at home.
Like many of us during the pandemic, I cleaned out closets, binged on The Home Edit and edited all my crap, and re-evaluated my life as I pondered where said pandemic might lead us. It gave me, and I suspect many others, a chance to decide what exactly were we going to do with all this stuff we had accumulated over years of leaving the house and bringing thing back in.
Amazon has also made it insanely easy to acquire more stuff. New hobby? Cool! Amazon can bring me all the rug-hooking supplies I could possibly need! Want to do some home improvement? Free Prime delivery for that ratchet set and how-to book. Even though I was sending out stuff that I didn't need, I had convinced myself there was still much to acquire that I DID need.
This is a hard habit to break.
I'd like to assign blame to Amazon, Covid-19, and outside temperatures above 100F, but the truth is it's me. Hi. I'm the problem, it's me.
My journal prompt has sometimes been "do I have to many hobbies?". At middle age, I feel it's important to learn new things, TRY new things even if they don't stick, and maybe get a new hobby. In the words of my musician son, consuming media is NOT a hobby. This means endless Tiktok scrolling, Netflix binging and CNN/Fox/TMZ consumption don't count as a hobby. So I do try stuff.
Often the things I try come with accessories. Maybe I have some latent Barbie fantasy where I get all the cool stuff to go with my dreamhouse - collect them all! Not all my hobbies stick around. I try things and then get distracted, wander off, or decide it just doesn't interest me anymore. At my age, I am forgiving of myself for this because although I read about plenty of adults who write their first novel/paint/become president after their Medicare kicks in, I don't care if I lose interest and don't win a Pulitzer.
What I do beat myself up over is when I purchase the Barbie-level cache of accoutrements to complement my latest interest. Again, Amazon is my accomplice. It was much more difficult to pick up sewing as a hobby when I had to drive to the store and wonder what kind of thread to buy or should I even try a pillow pattern? Thanks to Uncle Jeff as we call him at our house, I can browse the needles and thread at all hours and see it at my door so speedy!
I do have an actual job, which doesn't always allow me tons of time to participate in my interests. If I put a hobby aside, I think to myself well shit - did I over buy on pickleballs? I need to reserve a court! I need to finish my private pilot hours! And really - I need to grade papers so I don't get fired!
If I were giving myself advice (which I would probably ignore), I would say, don't sweat it. If your supplies no longer serve you, find them a new home. Or pick it back up after a hiatus when you were busy with other things. I often have angst over the amount of money I spent on a thing, and THAT is why is gets to hang around the ranch. Because somehow its cost justifies its presence? Silly me, no. I will commit to continuing to cull the herd of extra stuff and send on supplies that no long have a place in my life. Surely someone can use my beekeeping helmet I bought in summer 2020, right?
Hobby on, minimalist friends!
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