So, we're finishing up our move. And I threw out and/or got rid of a lot of stuff so far. And sometimes I think to myself, 'gee, why can't I just break the cycle of stuff and have only enough possessions that would fit into a single Econoline cargo van?'

But I end up coming to the conclusion that the biggest contributor to my possession volume is not necessarily my stupid stuff.. which I've been getting better about not collecting... but my tools and supplies to do my arts and crafts. There's a very attractive thread of thought among the people I find interesting in living lives of voluntary simplicity. See, I like making things. I like knowing how the complicated products of our industrial age are put together. I think that things not made on an assembly line have a charm.

A lot of thinking people tend to share this interest but also end up unable to actually adopt a totally simple lifestyle.

Thinking people are easily mislead, so we've got 'Really Simple' magazine and people going to a store and plunking down absurd amounts of money for a bookshelf that was made by hand, has intentional weathering and defects added to give you the appearance that it's really old and handmade, but that the weathering and defects are really just those twelve pieces of required flair at a Chotchkie's restaurant.

In the end, maybe it's just that "Simplicity" is too good of a brand name. Like "Organic". I like the idea of "Voluntary Simplicity" because it says "Yes, I'm riding the bike to work. No, I can afford a car, I just like biking better," but I guess it's too vacuous.

The problem with real simplicity is that living off the land was never as charming as you'd think. It actually kind of sucks in ways that everybody forgot.

Nonetheless, it is also clear that many trappings of modern life are not sustainable or even very healthy. Cycling to work really brought this into focus. It's shocking just how much better I feel with a much less sedentary lifestyle. And I also realized that I could have been biking to work the whole time.

Anyway, I'm realizing that the new place is actually far less stressful than the old place. It's roomy in ways that the old place was not. And it largely boils down to there being the minimum number of walls and that I'm moving all of my stuff from my old place into a place that has 300 more square feet without adding more clutter. This should be good.