It was kind of liberating, and kind of scary at the same time. What I had to keep in mind was, “Would I be able to access the same information through my laptop (or main computer as it is.)?” On a lot of those apps, I do have access to them on the computer.

The next question is number two on Sasaki’s list, and that is, “Discarding something takes skill.”

There was a lot on my phone that I felt could not be removed because I use it consistently both daily and weekly. And, some of those apps I cannot access on a computer, or they are more useful in a portable setting.

Previously, I have tried to look at getting rid of a large chunk of movies and books from our shelves. The mindset was that:

  • I was making space in the house.
  • I thought that I don’t read any of these books twice, so why keep them?
  • I watched this movie once, it fulfilled a need, so I don’t need to rewatch it again. Plus, I can find it on a streaming service if I wanted to watch it.

When I approached my wife about this, she put her foot down on a lot of what I was thinking and gave a resounding, “No!” to a lot of what I was looking at removing. Her mindset was that some of those items are collectible and would be extremely difficult to find again, and that we would watch or read those things again (at least she would).

I looked at the items that I was going through, and I agree with her fear. I also feel that some of those books I would read again. And, during certain times of the year, or even spur of the moment, I would be known to watch one of our movies again.

So, yes, discarding items does take a great deal of skill, specially when you are not the only one involved in the decisions of what comes in and out of the home.

There were two Kindle books that recently appeared in my many feeds that were on sale. I asked if it would be okay if I bought them because I feel my wife and I should agree on the decisions. The first book I approached her about she was okay with. The second book she stated, “I bet I could find that at the library to read.”

Two things popped in my head:

  • “When was the last time we went to the library?”
  • “But, I want to ‘own’ the book.”

The second one I told my wife. Her concern was that I was starting to repurchase too many books, and even with the drastic price reductions, all these purchases would add up. I came to the same conclusion as her, but informed her that the two ebooks I was not prepared to go on sale and that I am buying a digital copy, thus keeping our shelves less cluttered because it is not a physical book. Eventually, she agreed with the accessing of the ebooks as long as I admitted that this would be the last of the purchasing for a while.

Okay, love of my life. (Geez, mom! Get off my back! Gawd!)

Now, I have two more books to read. I suppose you could look at this as “You just added another couple of books to your 200+ books you have to read.” And, I would agree with you. That is why I am glad I did not purchase a majority of those books so that it would be easier to part with them. I guess you could say this is a “win-win” situation. But, I will be even more dillegent about downloading books, because I am still getting at least one or two free books every one to two days.

It needs to stop sometime.

Discarding items is so very, very hard. One day, I hope I can be better at it.