Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Luxuriating in the Inefficient
This morning I was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and a pile of cookbooks. I was ostensibly looking for a recipe for lima beans, but I was enjoying getting lost—remembering recipes I’d cooked in the past, contemplating other dishes, meandering in a very inefficient way.
Of course, it would have been much more efficient to leap on the computer and check out Epicurious.com, a route I often take on weeknights, but sometimes browsing through cookbooks leads you to try something new or cook something you otherwise would have forgotten. If I had to downsize drastically, I know I could copy my favorite recipes from every cookbook I own and fit them all into a binder. But since I don’t have to, I will continue to enjoy my cookbooks. To be clear, while I have far more cookbooks than I need, and I don’t need anymore, I have room for those I have.
So how do you tell if you “need” something? Sometimes in life, the measure has to be can I do without it? But more often than not, it’s best to just ask yourself if you are using it. If you aren’t using it, you don’t “need” it.
I always preach efficiency, but sometimes taking the longer route, especially on a summer morning, can be a very cost-effective form of luxury. Before summer ends, see if you can spend a little time enjoying what you already own. After all, that’s why you kept those cookbooks or craft projects or vinyl records, right?