#KISS - "That will burn in fire..."

Getting rid of what we don't need is part of the minimalist lifestyle. That's why it's a challenge when you are asked to take care of extraneous things that we feel may be expendable. We recently faced this situation, and although it didn't escalate to major problems, it did make us feel the difference of opinion.

Some of my relatives have travelled out of the country. Some temporarily and others permanently. This meant that, for various reasons, they expected some of their belongings to be left in our care. We know that one of the reasons why we want to keep material things is because of our feelings about them. However, those feelings are ours, not others'. Therefore, it is difficult to expect others to see and feel what we see and feel about them.

Decorative pictures. One such object is decorative pictures that my relative used in his living quarters. I like tastefully decorated places, but I am not one of those who like to buy pictures with paintings. But then again, we can't all think alike. So, when my relative was about to travel, he asked me to sell the paintings. He left them in a room, covered, in a wardrobe, to avoid deterioration. When I asked what the price would be, he told me he would ask for $500.

If I wanted to take up wall space on a $500 budget, I'd buy both smart TVs. Oh yes! And when I don't like them anymore, I could move them, or keep them, or look to sell them, because there are bound to be more people interested in them than in paintings. He claimed that they cost that much because of the author of the painting. Well, I apologise for my ignorance, but I still prefer the only signature on my wall to say ‘Samsung’, or ‘Sony’.

Well, I couldn't help but tell him I disagreed with the price, and told him that if he expected me to really help him sell it he should lower the price. He refused, and so the most expected result is that he had two paintings sitting in a wardrobe unused. That's a bit unpleasant. Well, how did I solve the matter? Well, with two nails. I nailed each one in a different room and hung them there. So I have a couple of rooms decorated with $500 worth of paintings. I'd rather they get dust where they can be seen than where the little animals can eat them.

Clothes. Obviously, when we travel we can't take all our clothes with us. So we decide what to leave and what to take. Now, what to do with those clothes that are not in optimal conditions but we have been wearing them anyway? Those clothes we wore at the weekend that have already lost their original colour, those shorts whose elastic is already stretched. That flannel whose collar has stretched too. Do we want to leave it for someone else to wash and take care of it, taking up space in the house? Don't joke with that, my friend...

Well, another one of my relatives also faced that. He had a conversation with me about what he would take and what he would leave. Then, in some parts of the conversation she seemed to imply that I should start offering them to other people as gifts once she left. Well, I told her that it would be better if she herself sought to give them away while she was still here, because if she went away and left them I would use them to clean the floor or just throw them away. Well, then she agreed and gave away most of her clothes, and the rest she threw away herself.

Unnecessary objects. As my relatives prepared to travel, they realised how much they had accumulated in the meantime. They told me that they didn't realise it because they simply had a place to put it, as the house is big. I do realise what I have because of our regular cleanings. But many of the questions they asked me about leaving some things behind or not, I would answer them with the phrase in the title of the post: ‘That will burn in the fire...’, making them see that I refused to keep things that were not necessary, neither for them nor for me. Then they would take quick action for it.

Fortunately, my relatives discarded and gave away a lot of things. Compared to everything they had, they left very little in our care. It could have been worse, but our firmness about it also helped to make them aware. Their humility and reasonableness also ensured that this did not turn into a problem or discord. Why, there were more important things to occupy our feelings, such as the sense of longing that their absence would generate. You don't need to keep a lot of objects to remember a person. Just the most significant ones and those beautiful photos they leave us.

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