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What is the one thing you don't really need?

Redcupcoffee 7 May 22
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51 comments

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1

My inner critic

9

Religion

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7
7

Associating with a woman who needs me (or anyone else) to feel completed. 🙂

@Redcupcoffee Would that they were all as self deprecating as 'doormats'. Many subtly build fantasies about you and how you are expected to become the completion. When you don't live up to those fantasies, a doormat is what they'd make of you. It goes that way for males or females looking for that missing puzzle piece.

Guh! So true!!!!! I cringe when people are like that. Like, no, thank you. I do not need the responsibility for YOUR life now that I finally got my kid all grown and gone.

7

Republicans!

@Redcupcoffee Too bad there isn't more than %100, We could use it. ?

7

Alcohol

6
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Probably about 90 percent of what I have.
When I went through an ugly divorce years ago, I came out the other end with nothing but a worn out small Chevy pickup truck. It felt like a relief actually, like a weight had been lifted off me. I lived for a while in a small trailer without even a bed. I did have a mattress on the floor. I felt so free, I could leave the house without even locking the door, because there was nothing to steal. It was a freedom like I'd never known. I swore at that time that I would never accumulate all the unnecessary stuff I'd had before.
Alas, I didn't keep that promise to myself (I've never used the word "alas" before). I now have more junk than ever. I still look back on that time with some fondness, but just last Saturday I got a craving to go fishing, and I went shopping for a rod and reel. I came back home with 2 rods, 3 reels and a new kayak. Sometimes I just can't reason with myself. One of these days though, just like Thoreau, I'm going to chuck it all and go live in a small cabin in the woods.

I was grinning as I read this, until I got to "and a new kayak." Then I guffawed out loud. Also, say alas a lot. It's a great word.

@Redcupcoffee I'm planning to do this in about a year. I recently lost thousands of books due to storage garage prices being out of my budget, and thought I'd die. Know what? I didn't. Also, Kindle and Audible give me all the reading material I could ever want. The only thing is, I have recently taken up painting. I guess I will make sure my vehicle has room for painting supplies. And I will learn to do that thing where you have 10 paints and can make any color.

6

I guess it depends where you are on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

6

Lots of junk and clutter in your house.

@Redcupcoffee This is who I want to be. But who I am is, I'd rather do a million other things than clean. What I WANT is a cleaning lady. Or, to make it interesting, a young, buff cleaning man. mwahaha

@Jenmcjen I followed the advice of the famous Marie Kondo book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing."

She said to go through the house and gather all the objects that are same, and put them in separate piles in one place..a pile of all your shoes, all your pairs of your scissors, etc.

Then select one or two identical items from each pile to keep, and put the rest in donation boxes.

When you want to keep multiple items, such as shoes, choose a few from each shoe genre by picking up each pair of shoes.If you feel a burst of joy, keep it. If nothing happens, then, no matter how much you paid for it, or who gave them to you, put them in in the Goodwill box.

The idea is that the items will be happier if they have a new, useful life, and you don't want to deprive them.

It may take a while to cover the entire house but when you're done the house will be echoing, clean, and easy to maintain. Furthermore, the process has taught you to listen to your inner voice instead of just buying and keeping whatever you see, without finding out if it truly brings you joy.

My daughter did that with me two years ago and I donated more stuff than I thought I even owned, but my house only looked much better, not empty. Now, if something no longer makes me happy, I no longer wait..I just donate it now.

@birdingnut This is brilliant.

@Redcupcoffee Yup..

6

Constant nagging insecurities

@Stevil hmmm I'll give it some thought

6

Illness

6

Disrespect.

6

Cheez-Its. NO WAIT! You said DON'T need. Hmm...

@Redcupcoffee Don't knock'em til you've had'em in your chili. =P

6

underpants

I am in agreement with this one. Back when clothes were made mostly of rough wool, you needed underpants to avoid chaffing. But, assuming you clean yourself properly after using th facilities, with today's clothing made with modern fabrics you don't really need underpants anymore.

@snytiger6 yep. I haven't owned underwear since the 90's.

@kauva I own underwear and will put it on if I am to go shopping to try on clothes. But, that is the only reason I might wear it.

5

Sorry but here is two, clairvoyants and psychics.

5

Rejection

5

Human needs are pretty basic. What most people think of as needs really aren't anything of the sort. We need nutritious food; clean water and plenty of it to drink (bathing can be done in other ways without water, but having enough water for a hot bath or shower is nice); we need protection from the elements and that generally means both shelter and clothing, but not always; we need good health, and that includes physical, mental, eyes, and teeth (screw up any one of them and we start having problems); we need companionship, which doesn't necessarily have to be romantic or sexual, but for those of us who enjoy either romance and/or sex it certainly is nice to have those as well; and we need purpose, or at least a sense of purpose (something that drives us and gives us motivation to live and live well).

Anything beyond that is a luxury that ought not be taken for granted.

As for me personally, if I had to choose (from among the many things I don't need) the one thing that I would most willingly no longer have, I'd say that I really don't need to suffer from chronic illness anymore. But if I were to choose a physical object sort of thing, then I think my cell phone would probably top the list.

I was with you up until the cell phone thing. I don't know how I ever lived without that thing. And never plan to again.

@Jenmcjen

That's really the point of this question from @Redcupcoffee, though, or at least I believe so. The intent seems to be to get different people to give their different and unique answers.

There's lots of people who would have a seriously difficult time adjusting to no longer having a cell phone, and there certainly are a lot of good reasons for many people to have them. But for me personally, it just isn't that important.

I didn't even have a cell phone until 2004, and I still don't have a smart phone. Not that I would mind having a smart phone with all the bells and whistles and apps, etc. I particularly like the new Honor 10. But as little as I use my cell phone, and as few specific things as I use it for, combined with being home most of the time due to my disability, where I have my computer and the Nox Android emulator so I can run most apps on my computer anyway, plus there's still an actual land line here, my cell phone just isn't that important to me.

My computer, on the other hand, I would have a very difficult time adjusting to giving that up.

@EntropicLynx That makes sense. My cell phone has come to take the place of a number of other items. I rarely use it for phone calls.

@mattersauce mentioned Oxygen, and yes, that is true, so I should like to add to my list to include "clean, breathable air", or at least "non-poisonous, non-noxious, sufficiently oxygenated, breathable medium (liquid or gas) that our lungs can successfully extract sufficient supplies of oxygen from without overworking our respiratory system and hearts to the point of failure (which is a problem with breathing oxygenated liquids right now)". But for simplicity's sake, let's leave it at "clean, breathable air".

We also need the basic space (land, buildings, space stations, floating artificial islands, etc.) to be able to achieve all of our other needs.

5

Religion.

5

Coffee

JeffB Level 6 May 22, 2018

I could live without coffee, but I really woudn't want to.

5

Hassle.

Coldo Level 8 May 22, 2018
4

Junk mail. Why does 75% or more of my mail go from my mail box to the recycling bin? On Tuesday evening the recycling bin gets moved to where the mail box is, maybe I should leave it there. Just happens that the mailbox is beside the end of my driveway.

There used to be(still is for all I know) a guy many miles up a dirt road near Boulder, CO who signed up for everything, especially catalogs ...made his own pressed logs and heated his house

@Buttercup Resourceful - excellent.

4

Mentally ugly reactive negative people

4

Fucked-up emotional responses?

4

Student apathy

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