"The objects that add value today may not add value tomorrow, which means we must be willing to let go of everything." --The Minimalists
An activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure is a hobby. If you were to look around my apartment, you might assume that my hobbies were hiking (many trail books on my bookshelf and nature photos on my wall), reading (the many books that I possess), cooking (cookbook on my kitchen counter), drinking coffee (my kitchen is decorated with a coffee theme), photography (I have pictures and polaroid photos on my walls),and painting (I have several acrylic canvases on my wall).
Then, if you were to open up my closets, look through my drawers of my desk and dresser, and open my Tupperware containers, you would add a few more assumed hobbies. One of them being scrapbooking. During 2005-2010, I enjoyed scrapbooking and I was an avid shopper at Archivers (a store that is a scrapbooker's dream and nightmare). I was regularly purchasing items to scrapbook life events (graduations, travel trips, holidays), and my scrapbooking began consuming more and more space and money. Since 2010, I have not scrapbooked ANYTHING, but yet, I have continued to move my scrapbook "hobby" around with me from Omaha to Missouri to Seattle.
Recently, I had my scrapbooking items stored in two separate places in my Seattle apartment, one location was my entry-way closet, and the other location was my hallway closet. My scrapbook supplies were not easily accessible in these closets; it would be quite a process to access my supplies to utilize them, so I just chose not to use them because it was such a hassle....how did I think this was logical? I made something that I considered enjoyable, inaccessible, so I was technically depriving myself from being happy.
So when I paused and thought about how scrapbooking added purpose and happiness to my current life, there were two options: 1) Scrapbooking was still a hobby I wanted to pursue, and needed to rearrange my setup, so it would be more accessible and not hidden from me, or 2) Scrapbooking is no longer a hobby, and I need to get rid of it to make more room for another hobby. I decided on option 2; scrapbooking no longer held the same value and interest it once did in my life, so it was time to find the majority of my scrapbooking supplies a new home.
My former excessive consumerism is fully depicted in the photos below. Many of the stickers, cardstock, accessories haven't been open; they are brand new. Some of these supplies were purchased for items that I "hoped" to do one day. Other items, especially stickers, were purchased in over-abundance. For instance, I had 10 different sticker books for New York City. I visited NYC in 2009, and I never scrapbooked that 3-week trip.
I was able to find someone in my life that enjoys scrapbooking, but does not have the financial means to participated it at the level that they desired; therefore, my former hobby has been repurposed. Recently, they sent me a photo of something they had constructed utilizing my scrapbooking supplies, and I realized that my former hobby still brings a smile to my face and warms my heart, just now in an indirect way.
When was the last time that you reevaluated your interests and hobbies in your life? How much time, space, and money do they cost you for the amount of happiness you receive?
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