I spent more time than I wanted to with kitchen work and cleaning my place up this weekend, which follows with trying a little bit to make it more festive looking for Christmas whilst I had the momentum. I don’t know how it gets in such disarray when it feels like I’m rarely here anymore. It made me pause for thought about how much of my space, or the things in it, that I’m honestly satisfied with having.
With the rate at which technology is shrinking, and access and interface with it is getting more and more user-friendly, I’m coming to realize that the actual physical space we need to make ourselves feel physically comfortable should be reduced as well; or I’m getting more puzzled, or failing more to understand, as to why we think that we should have more expensive real estate than is necessary to claim as “living” space given this trend.* Perhaps this belief comes out of ignorance, since it seems like I’m rarely home enough to actually “live” in my own place anymore. Maybe it’s because I’ve just lived independently alone for so long, and I’m the one solely responsible for my home’s upkeep; I would find the prospect of living in a large spacious house a kind of hell. Having the mindset of a single occupant, it doesn’t appeal to me at all knowing that there would be even more precious time and utility cost wasted keeping such a place tidy, functional, and in order.
Author Tim Ferriss likes to promote life enhancements that can be done in four hours ( The 4 Hour Workweek, The 4 Hour Body, The 4 Hour Chef). I'd like to promote what can be life-enhancing that can be kept within 4 square meters. I figured out all the necessary space, and things in it, that I’d need to satisfy the conditions that could easily keep me comfortably entertained for an entire cold winter's day**. It all can be compacted into an area of about 4.2 m2. If I eliminated the books and papers, it would shrink further still. I took some time to map out my snuggery in the following photo (sorry if you have to squint to see the number labels).
- Fireplace
- Firewood (preferably birch)
- An absolutely hideous, yet super-cozy comforter, which also doubles as a makeshift bed for Ella for her fireside napping
- Backgammon board (for the odd non-solitude moments)
- Free weekend newspaper (for reading a couple of articles, perusing want ads, doing the crossword/sudoku puzzle, and the rest is used for starting fire in 1.
- Non-fiction book(s)
- Fiction book(s)
- E-reader for everything else of random reading interest and trivia
- Wii Controller
- Deck of cards (used more for mnemonic testing than playing games)
- Puzzle books (sudoku and logic problems)
- Tea (or beer/wine/spirit later in the evening)
- Snacky things (in this case, it just literally happens to be soup to nuts)
- Laptop computer
- iTouch (music, podcasts, news, calculator)
- Earphones (to share peace with my neighbours)
- Blu-Ray remote
- Firm floor cushion (meditation, sitting closer to fire)
- TV (not-visible, but would still fit in the four square meter zone)
- Blu-ray player (also not visible, I don't even actually need disks, I can use it to tune into You Tube and Sony's free channels)
- Wii Consule (not visible, used more for news clips than gaming)
Missing from the picture is a pen and notebook/sketchpad (22), my currently rather uncooperative and unphotogenic dog (23), and another opponent to play games with me (24). It all at first glance looks quite ordinary and boring. However, if I ever found myself getting extremely bored given any of this, I would think that there would be something really very wrong with me if I couldn't occupy myself with any of these 24 options during 16 waking hours of a day of inclement weather being stranded at home. I actually look forward to the night during some really bad coldsnap, to really keep it simple: by throwing number 2 in number 1, perching on 18, wrapped up in 3, scratching number 23's head while she sleeps by my feet, while drinking the wine option of 12. Having a 24 join me is about as complicated as I'd allow the scene to get.
I write and post this for the benefit of some people I've been watching lately, who have more space than this to use (who are cluttering up their precious space with more junk they aren't really using), with more access to more toys, gadgets, and other material than presented in my picture, who yet don't use it to get any smarter or to feel or gain any deeper sense of solace; who have lately been driving their other cohorts, and those who assist them, bonkers: getting up each others' asses for no reason with their own spells of being stir crazy. Winter has only really just begun, and it hasn't even gotten that cold yet! What are they going to be like when it does start getting more bitter outside? It's really time to reassess yourselves people (you know who you are).
*- Stereos and CD collections are being reduced to MP3 format and their respective players. Entire shelves of hundreds of bulky, physical books can be eliminated by using a single e-reader. Interactive video screens and game consoles are attracting more sensory attention than the remaining ambience of a room. I would term this trend of relating with digital media more than using physical space, while avoiding the outside world as “micro-cocooning”.
**- When it becomes cold enough to result in having to warm up my car’s engine for longer than the actual time it will spend on the road, or when the dog has the sense to not want to walk two steps outside booted and fully bundled: that’s the kind of day I’m talking about around here. That point is usually around, or below, -30 Celsius (not including some horrific wind chill factor). It's not worth the trouble trying to get around, and it's a day when I want to expend as little energy as possible on unnecessary movement, inside or outside.
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