Luxury Camping and Other Games

If you have some spare time on a Saturday, head down to your friendly local outdoor store and take a look at their camping supplies.  Pretend for a minute that you're going to go camping, and you need a complete supply of everything, and you have all the money in the world to spend.  

Hmm, let's see. They've got sleeping bags and sleeping pads. They've got little camp stoves and bug spray.

Ok, now spend all the money you want, and pretend that you are camping for a month. Also, pretend that you dislike mosquitos.

Hmm. They've got three-room tents that look like mini apartments.  They've got camp cots and big squooshy cot pads to sleep on. They've got lanterns that you can safely hang from every room in your tent.  Not only that, but there's mosquito netting, rain vestibules, comfy folding chairs, comfy folding tables, awnings for shaded outdoor areas, awnings with hangings for buggy outdoor areas, rugs to go under awnings or in front of tents, and little mini generators so you can charge your iPod even when you're roughing it.  We could get a cooler for our camp kitchen and an entire set of little matching camp dishes, along with a collapsible dog bowl for Fido.  There's even a portable camp oven! And a whole rack of donkeys to carry all our gear. 

Now, since we have donkeys, we can even carry luxury items on our pretend camping trip, like that bath soap that you like so much, or your complete set of Harry Potter novels. If you have kids, they could bring a lot of their favorite toys.  Now, this is really living!

Now you've got a setup that you've spent thousands of dollars on that has ALMOST all the luxuries of home.

Now go home.  

Oh my goodness, now you've really got ALL the luxuries of home.  Scented shampoo? Deoderant? Electricity? This kitchen even has a dishwasher! It's amazing! Not only that, but I can stop reading IN THE MIDDLE OF A BOOK and start a NEW one, no matter how heavy either of them are! I don't even have to pick up after the donkeys.  

All of this luxury comes infinitely cheaper than the best camping trip you can afford.

Don't get me wrong, camping has its place, and usually the most avid campers can do without all the luxury items that are for sale in the big outdoor stores.  But if you are a fan of luxury, and are feeling a tad unluxurious in these times, pretend you are luxury camping and have all the luxury that money can buy. 

Helping the Robot: Making little (free) changes that help everybody

Below is a video about a performance art project in which a happy, helpless robot makes its way across a park in NYC with the help of strangers. 

 

You can read all about the project at Tweenbots.com.

Part of the reason this made me smile was because it brings out the best in strangers-- a little nudge here and there and the world is a better place. 

If you saw a cardboard robot with a smiley face, would you help it out? Would you, as one man did, talk to it to warn it of the dangers of the road? Or would you ignore it?

There are so many ways to help people out that don't depend on money, or even a great deal of time. Sometimes it's as simple as helping a stranger on the bus carry their groceries.  Aside from the possibility of making a new friend, it helps create a world where people are more likely to ride the bus than to fire up their cars. Maybe it's providing directions to someone on the street, rather than being suspicious. Maybe it's taking an extra five minutes to shovel the sidewalk in front of the neighbor's house as well.  Or taking the time to recycle, or pick up a piece of litter. Or maybe it's taking the extra ten seconds to throw out the office coffee grinds rather than leaving them for the next person. 

Sometimes when we are on a budget we feel like we are not in a position to give (because we can't afford to bring cupcakes to the function, or pay for gas to get to the community meeting, or don't have the cash to contribute to the office gift pool), or we overcompensate by giving more of our time than we really can.  But this doesn't have to be the case-- we can "help the robot" along a nudge at a time, and sometimes the small, convenient changes add up to a lot of help for not much effort.  

Create Instant Value: Clean Your House

I have recently been touring homes for sale with friends. 

It is incredible to me how many of these homes are simply disgusting in their approach to cleanliness. Granted, many of them are filled with renters that have no interest in the sale of the property, but never has the difference between well-cared for and neglected been so clear to me when it comes to property and property value. Basically, clean houses just cost more. Interesting thought, especially when I have a messy home and a closet full of cleaning products.

However much your home is worth, it is worth more when it is clean.

However much you are paying in rent, you are receiving more for your money if it is clean.

However often you have friends over, you and your friends will be healthier and more comfortable if your place is clean.

Don't get me wrong. It is far more important to enjoy life without stressing over the neccessity of having a spotless or magazine-quality home. We are, after all, real people, not home decorators or professional organizers. But so many times we will pay top dollar for a larger house, fancier apartment, or newer carpet simply because we are sold on the cleanliness. And cleanliness, while not next to godliness, is something we pay mightily for but actually can come pretty cheap.

Try it. Right now. Take five minutes and go clean a bathroom counter or take out one trash can. 

*   *   *

For those of us who are naturally disorganized, maintaining a clean environment seems like an uphill battle.  Over the years, I've interviewed quite a few friends who are natual neatnicks, and they have always offered me the same basic advice:

• Picture your house how you like it. Then remove anything that interferes with that plan.
• Anything that belongs in your house has a place where it belongs. If it is out of this spot, make a habit of returning it to that spot. Items that have no spot do not belong. (this is harder than it sounds! and sooooo helpful)
• When things come into your home (such as junk mail), get them sorted out, either to the trash or their place-of-belonging as soon as possible.

I've noticed that people who are not accumulators have a natural tendency to maintain the stuff-where-it-belongs rule, whereas people who are natural accumulators have difficulty because items accumulate at a rate faster than available space, and stuff gets jumbled up quickly.

Cleanliness and organization are related, of course. And organizing and uncluttering are related as well. Here are some basic definitions:

• Cleaning: the actual removal of dirt and grime from surfaces.
• Straightening: the placement of items where they belong.
• Organizing: the creation or adherence to systems in which items have places where they belong
• Uncluttering: the removal of stuff in your home. In some ways, this is the most difficult as well as the most important.

I've needed help, and I've enjoyed the tips in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Life (flattering title, no?) as well as other books and tips on the Internet.  

You can always ask your friends to help.  A lot of times it is a great deal easier to tidy another's mess because one is not personally attached to it.  And you can offer to help clean their home in return.

Share any tips you'd like in the comments.

Adding cost vs. Adding value: Why Life isn't like Monopoly

Have you ever played Monopoly? You know, the game where you go around the board, and if you land on a square that belongs to someone else you must pay them rent? And you get your money mostly from other people paying rent?

The thing about this game is that money only really enters the game at one point: when players finish the circle they collect money from "the bank".  (and a few rare cards you can draw that tell you that you win the lottery or somesuch.) Every other way to get money takes it from the other players. 

Real-world economy is like this too. Think of the ways you can make money-- most of them involve taking it from other players. We work for a paycheck, which is money we take from our company, which is money it takes from its customers, which is money they take from their paychecks, which is money taken from... you get the idea.

Unfortunately, in this model there is no "going around Go". 

When the economy is suffering, as it has been recently, everyone starts moving around the board a little slower, so they have to pay less, which means fewer people are landing on your squares and giving you money, which means you move around the board a little slower... etc.

Unlike Monopoly, the object of the game is not to earn money.

Money, like in Monopoly, is just little bits of papers or maybe some numbers kept track of electronically.  Unlike in Monopoly, our real-world bits of paper can buy us real-world pleasures and neccessities. These pleasures and neccessities are the reason we chase down the bits of paper in the first place.

Unlike Monopoly, you can sometimes skip the bits of paper and go straight for the pleasures and neccessities.

In Monopoly, everything has a cost, but nothing has any real value.  The cost is the dollar amount that you must pay to acquire the property, railroad, etc. But the value is the amount of pleasures and neccessities that that property brings to you.

Let's talk for a minute about cost vs. value.

Example 1:

A movie you enjoy a great deal, watch several times, and loan out can cost $20 but offer you hours and hours of relaxation, bonding with friends, common experiences, ability to provide for sick friends when you loan it out, etc.  In this scenario, the cost is $20 but the value is high. Or, you could buy the same movie used for $7, and the cost would be less, but the value would be the same high amount.

Contrast that to a movie that you buy for $20 but watch once and dislike to the point that you don't even finish it. You never watch it again, you never loan it out, and it takes up space on your shelf. The cost is $20, but the value is less than nothing, because not only do you not gain any pleasure or fill any need, but it requires space in your living room to exist.  

And yet the two movies cost the same.

Example 2:

Consider another example: A junkyard is full of broken cars. They are worth nothing-- they are only there because people have needed a place to abandon them.  However, the junkyard owner's daughter is quite good with engines-- she takes the working pieces from all the cars and manages to make a car that works.  She then uses this car to get a job and attend classes to further her education. The cost of the car is very low, but the value that she creates from a junkyard full of broken cars is priceless. 

Too often we focus on the costs of items, and not their value. Sometimes we recognize value (but if I bought this expensive exercise machine, think of how in-shape I would be! I would feel better about myself, be more outgoing, live longer and happier!) but only as a way to justify the cost.

What ways can you create high value with low cost?  This is where dollars truly enter the system-- when pleasures and neccessities are amplified and multiplied for little or nothing.  

• Do you have clothes in your closet that don't fit (value = zero) that you can give to people who need them (value = high)?
• Do you have food that will soon go bad that you can't finish (value = zero) that you can make a big dinner with and have all your friends over (value = high)?
• Do you have free time (value = open) that you can donate to an organization you support in the form of volunteering (value = high)? 
• Do you have a spare room that you aren't using (value = low) that you can rent out to create housing for someone and additional income for you (value = high)?
• Do you have a task such as cleaning or yard work that you abhor (value = low) and enough money to hire someone else to do it, creating more jobs in a low-job market and freeing up sometime for yourself to get another job, further your education, volunteer elsewhere, or just relax (value = high)? 
• Do you have a special skill (value = open), such as an ability to fix home computers, write insightful commentary, tend neighborhood children, or fix good meals from inexpensive ingredients, that you could share with others, possibly in exchange for their special skills (value = high)? 
• Do you have a messy house, a junk pile, unfinished projects, unused space, or wasted material (value = open) that you can clean up, move out, finish up, or give to someone who can use it (value = high)? 
• Do you know a group of people who don't know each other (value = low) with the skills to start a major project that will revoluntionize the way people think (value = high)? 

There are only so many pieces of green paper in the world, and right now everybody is protective of theirs.  Forget about the cost -- What kind of value do you want? What kind of value do you offer? What are you going to do about it?