23 November 2012

The Kijiji files

I don't know if it is because Craig's List took so long to take off in the smaller Canadian markets, or if there's some sort of crazy Kool-Aid we've all partaken of in the north, but where I live, if you want something to sell, it goes on kijiji. I don't know what kijiji means, but kijiji.ca has been a god-send this past year.

One of the things we've been working on (with very very moderate success) is lessening the 'things' in our house. Clearing space. Making our home more tidy. To make our home more tidy, we need to do 2 things: reduce the amount of crap coming in, and reduce the amount of crap that is already there.

I will tackle our consumerism once the house is in order, but this has been a year long project for us, and one that has only recently shown actual marked change. I place the credit on this change squarely on Manthing's broad-ish shoulders. If he hadn't been transferred home, I think I would still be floundering. He's recently caught quite a bug about the kitchen and dining room being clean, and I am not going to fuss about the fact that he ignores the bathroom completely if he's on fire about the kitchen. I can totally take the bathroom bullet.

When he first got home, I made him pull everything out from under the stairs. We went through the mountain of stuff, and put a bunch of it off to one side. I industriously snapped photos on my iPhone, and quickly posted the things on kijiji. Almost everything sold within 24 hours. I think I probably underprice.The big hold out was the moving boxes. But even they eventually sold (and because we broke them into chunks, for more than we'd initially asked). So then there was just a pile of stuff there that needed to be stored again. But instead of just tossing it all back under the stairs, I started to root through it. Did I really need all my cassettes from childhood? Probably not. The babygate? Nope. Etcetera.

So we loaded up the minivan and headed off to charity with a full up cargo hold. Seriously.

Between Kijiji and charity donations, we've cleared a ton of space in our rather-small house. It disturbs me to think of how much was actually in the house at this time last year. We've sold: 2 desks, a dresser, a bookshelf, boxes, baby stuff, a bar, a hutch... I can't actually remember everything we've listed in the last year, it's been that much.

It makes me really stop and realize the effect that rampant consumerism has on our society. We're always looking for something better, something more, something else. And that really needs to stop, on a global scale, but I can't make that change globally. I can, however, make it in my own home. When I am bored and lonely, I go shopping. I need to figure out something I enjoy equally much to do so I am not bringing things we don't need into our home. And I need to continue culling the things that are already taking up precious space inside.

So the cull will continue, and Kijiji will remain one of my best friends for the foreseeable future.

No comments:

Post a Comment