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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Reduce - Reduce, Reduce and Reduce some more...

As a college student constantly on the move I had learned the virtue of being a minimalist. But books and coffee were still two vices that I had to learn to contain when I had decided to truly "REDUCE". It took lots of determination to mentally let go but slowly I sold or gave away my books, and cut down my coffee consumption to one half-decaf cup in the morning. A rather surprising side benefit is the substantial saving which I am saving up for something else useful.

Nowadays I utilize libraries, browse in bookstores or borrow from friends, and I have not bought a new book in the past 5 years. As for coffee I have stopped splurging at Starbucks, and brew my own in the morning if at all. I am learning to find alternative ways to enjoy without having to waste so much, and finding these ways is a part of the fun.

Once I handled my vices, reducing other items becomes much easier.

I measure my "REDUCE" success by the amount of excess I have accumulated over time. As simple of a life as I live, I can still end up with some excess over time, like DVDs and clothings, for which I find ways to reuse, give away, or recycle, and most importantly, continue to learn to not have them in the first place.

What keeps me on this narrow path is the understanding that "waste" leads to the "destruction of environment".

1 comment:

Polarbear said...

No wonder the stock values of Starbucks & Borders have been dropping. :D

Indeed Starbucks and all the other fast food chains produce tons of wastes every minute for our convenience... What a pitiful food culture.