Convenience or Stuff

The battle rages on between living simply and convenience. What stuff is essential and what is a perk? What things truly make our lives simpler and/or easier and what things do more to clutter our lives than help them out?

The best example of this is the kitchen. I promise you there is a gadget or gizmo for absolutely any function or task in the kitchen. Bread slicers, juicers, grapefruit spoons, food processors, hot dog cookers, potato mashers, pastry knives, toasters, and even a strainer lid to go over a can to assist you in draining it (I bought it once, don't laugh). Entire websites dedicated to the latest in kitchen gadgets. There are 12 different kinds of knives and various types of spoons and a spork! Glasses for particular drinks. Plates and bowls for certain types of foods. The list goes on and on and on. Go to a Pampered Chef party! Look at the SkyMall magazine!

It has certainly been interesting seeing what tools the man who lived in my house previously has. There are entire drawers and cabinets that I've never once used. And then, oddly, a few gadgets that I simply adore using (an over the glass metallic juicer is awesome for making my green tea lemonade!) and other ones I cannot for the life of me understand.

Some sit in drawers and gather dust aside from the once or twice a year we might pull them out. Some we use so frequently that they never lie in wait in the drawer but are usually found in the drying rack or sink!

We never use them all. And in truth, we could live without most of them quite easily. I've survived for quite sometime without a pastry knife though I would love to have one. I have friends who have never had a food processor and use a blender for everything. A friend on internship decided not to bring her rice cooker but her Rabbit wine opener had to go with her (and for this, I cannot fault her - those things are AWESOME).

Are our lives any different? The things we believe we must have because they'll make our lives easier when in reality, we are surrounded by drawers of clutter. By brain space full of useless facts. By shelves full of books we will never read. By minutes wasted with time saving strategies. By bodies full of extra calories. By pantries full of ready made food. By vanities full of products and medicine cabinets full of pills and creams and ointments.

I'm sure there are more. I'm at the point where I'm sorting through what is essential and what is superfluous. I recognize this will change when I have a partner, when I have a family, when I am older. But right now, I honestly don't want a freezer full of frozen meals or an entire shelf in my bathroom for my "essentials" (face wash, face lotion, acne med, eye make up remover, Zyrtec, 5HTP, qtips, body lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, Listerine, mascara, hairbrush, hair gel...).

But I do love that over the glass juicer.... ;)