Owning too many things in your life can not only drain and frustrate you, it can make it difficult to get things done. You find yourself collecting things for a couple of reasons, maybe you think you’ll need to use them later, you spent good money on them, or they have sentimental value so you feel you need to keep these items. The majority of people haven’t touched or used these things in weeks, months, or even years. Excessive things or clutter in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. Once you've accumulated a certain amount of stuff, it starts to own you rather than the other way around. People often associate happiness with how many cars you have and how big your house is, but these …show more content…
things can just create more unwanted stress on a person. A disorganized space can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ultimately ourselves. Having a messy home and work space can leave us feeling unfocused, anxious, and overwhelmed. Yet, having to many material items is rarely recognized as a significant source of stress in our everyday lives. When your environment is disorderly, the chaos restrains your ability to focus and stay on track. A messy environment also limits your brain’s ability to process information. An organized and clean environment helps our mind focus, and this ultimately causes less stress. From the article, “Living With Less. A Lot Less” author Graham Hill claims, “Apparently our supersized homes don’t provide enough space for all of our possessions, as is evidenced by our country’s $22 billion personal storage industry.” This is evidence to prove that people in our society don’t even have enough space in their own homes for their clutter so they pay extra money to keep it in storage. We get to much stress looking at these objects in our own homes so we put them in storage to make it “go away”. Anxiety and depression can lead to a disorderly home and this can lead to more depression and anxiety. Generally, we don’t realize how quickly things add up and how much we accumulate. In the article, “On Dumpster Diving” author Lars Eighner tells his own story on how his life changed after leaving his job.
Eighner left his job in 1988 and soon fell behind in his rent payments, this resulted in him becoming homeless. When Eighner became homeless he soon had to rely on dumpster diving to find his basic needs. Majority of people in society assume homeless people are uneducated but for Eighner this wasn’t the case. Eighner claimed, “Dumpster diving seems to me to be a little too cute and, in my case, inaccurate because I lack the athletic ability to lower myself into the dumpsters as the true divers do.” Eighner preferred using the word scavenging rather than dumpster diving. Eighner stated, “I was shocked to realized that some things are not worth acquiring. Some material things are white elephants that eat up the possessor’s substance”. Eighner is trying to say that everything is not worth taking when it is not needed or necessary. When Eighner uses the term “white elephant” he means a possession that is useless or not needed, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose. These objects soon take control of the owner or possessor by filling their lives with clutter. We all can take example from Eighner because he shows us it is possible to live on the bare minimum in modern society, even if it means living off of
dumpsters. Learning from Eighner, excessive clutter is not necessary and is often a symptom of stress. This can affect every aspect of your life, including family life, finances, workspace, home life, and your overall enjoyment of life. Having to much stuff can distract you, weigh you down, and it brings more chaos into your life. Tackling the clutter can seem an impossible task if you don’t know where or how to start. By devoting time to getting rid of the clutter in your life and maintaining things relatively mess-free, you’ll be rewarded with organized living areas, reduced stress, and a more productive existence. In the article, “Living With Less. A Lot Less” author Graham Hill tells his story on how he survives living life on the bare minimum. Hill once lived a life of mansions, cars, money, and endless possessions. Soon he found his life became unnecessarily complicated with all of the houses, cars, bills, and tasks to complete owning all of these things. Hill found himself numb to it all and realized all the stuff ended up running his life and even consuming him as a person. Hill said, “There isn’t any indication that any of these things makes anyone any happier, in fact it seems the reverse may be true”. Money, cars, and houses cannot buy peoples happiness because in the end owning all of these things can make people feel lonely or lost. Now Hill lives in a 420-square-foot studio and sleeps in a bed that folds down, he gave up all of the unnecessary possessions in his past complex life to now live a simple life. Hill concludes his article by saying, “My space is small. My life is big.” This means there is more to live than the things we by there is a whole world out there filled with people and places to go. Graham Hill is another prime example that people in our society need to follow. Ridding clutter from your life can make you more focused, relaxed and productive. Let’s face it, we live in a highly materialistic society and it can be very hard to resist all its trappings. We are bombarded with hundreds of ads per day telling us the right stuff is going to make us happier, healthier, more attractive, and more successful. The decision to buy and later discard an item may seem to be based on logic but in reality it’s far from it. Along with material possessions comes emotional baggage. Our things embody our memories, our hopes and dreams, who we believe we are now, and who we plan on being in the future when our best self finally shows up. Getting rid of things you’ve purchased can be a form of admission of your failings. By getting rid of these materialistic objects we will find ourselves happier with our lives and actually living life not living live through material things. At one point in my life I connected cars, clothes, shopping, and material objects with happiness. During a hard time in my life I escaped from my own emotions by covering them up with going shopping and buying new things. I soon realized that the thrill of getting something new is great but soon after all of those emotions soon catch up to you and you don’t feel any better in the end. After reading, “Living With Less. A Lot Less” and “On Dumpster Diving” it showed me that material objects can control a person’s life and consume them. I learned that buying things and getting new objects isn’t a way of living life and it can cause added unnecessary stress. If other people in our society could soon realize that their lives don’t need to be filled with clutter, people will find themselves living a less stressful life. People in our modern day society link stuff with happiness, but little do they know the more stuff they own the more stress this creates. The world is constantly trying to get us to buy they newest cell phone model, highest tech car on the market, and don’t get me started on 24-hour online shopping. People are complicating their lives and creating stress with owning so many unnecessary possessions. Excessive things and buying in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. We all need to declutter our lives and stop focusing on material objects because in the end they consume us as people.
He starts by giving a lot of personal examples (Pizza shop example), then talks about other people who try it (The stages of beginning to dumpster dive), and explains how dumpster diving is a lot better than the more accepted picking up of cans (comparison to a wino). He then delves into the ethics behind dumpster diving (looking at prescription bottles and such), and then if one, presumably the reader, wanted to try it how they would do so (pole with hook on it). He ends with some deep insights into dumpster diving and his way of life. I think that the way he organizes his essay, and his overall tone, are to convince the reader that dumpster diving is not as bad as everyone things, and to make people actually interested in trying it. He first
Lars Eighner uses the appeal of ethos the most prominently in his book to prove he is credible, followed by an appeal logos by applying logic and pathos using stories.
Although Eighner reveals that his chosen lifestyle was to live on another's refuge, he kept in accordance with his acts of superiority and snobbishness by excluding himself from the term "Dumpster Diving." Instead, he preferred to be called a "scavenger because of its frankness in the term." (Eighner, 1993). Furthermore, Eighner, explains that there are rules to abide by when successfully "scavenging" through dumpsters, "using the senses…knowing the dumpsters of a given area…. [and] Why was this discarded?" It is the explanation of the three guidelines Eighner asserts to be superior to 'can scroungers' (Homeless people who rummage through the dumpsters for money). The author further elaborates his snobbishness by revealing that he has tried the heinous lifestyle of "can scroungers," and deduced that only a few dollars could be obtained. Moreover, Eighner states, "one can extract the necessities of life from the dumpsters directly with far less effort than would be required to accumulate the equivalent of cans." (Eighner, 1993). The author stereoty...
According to Mayberry (2009) Lars Eighner, a graduate of the University of Texas, became homeless in 1988 and again in 1995 (p. 351). Some of the accounts from Travels with Lisbeth (1993), a book by Lars Eighner, depicted what he went through and what he found during his homeless state. A homeless person must eat and sleep but may not know where or when this might happen next. The human will to survive enabled Eighner to eat food from a dumpster, reach out to other for handouts, and sleep in places other than a bed with covers.
In the past decades, the booming housing market has caused the prices of real estate to dramatically increase causing the issue of homelessness to be on the rise. Many people who do live on the streets, resort to dumpster diving and finding trash to call theirs. In his article: "On Dumpster Diving" Lars Eighner, goes into depth about his experiences while dumpster diving. Eighner found many items in the dumpster that were still edible or somewhat useful. He began diving a year before he became homeless and has continued while he wrote his piece of work (Eighner 673). Eighner enlightens us with many instances of his journey dumpster diving while he was homeless.
The author, Lars Eighner explains in his informative narrative, “On Dumpster Diving” the lifestyle of living out of a dumpster. Eighner describes the necessary steps to effectively scavenge through dumpsters based on his own anecdotes as he began dumpster diving a year before he became homeless. The lessons he learned from being a dumpster diver was in being complacent to only grab what he needs and not what he wants, because in the end all those things will go to waste. Eighner shares his ideas mainly towards two direct audiences. One of them is directed to people who are dumpster divers themselves, and the other, to individuals who are unaware of how much trash we throw away and waste. However, the author does more than direct how much trash
Didion and Eighner have different styles of writing, but they both created writings with an instructional component. In both pieces of literature, they guide the audience like a mother to child, guiding us step by step in order to perfect the outcome. Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook” teaches the reader on how to keep note of the past through a notebook. “On Dumpster Diving” written by Lars Eighner, teaches the reader how to successfully dumpster dive and survive. However, Eighner’s piece included many details, whereas Didion’s ideas used examples by flowing from one top to another. It could also be said that Lars Eighner’s piece creates a more thorough analysis on how to dumpster dive. In spite of the fact that the pieces of literature
Homelessness is increasing every year and effecting Americans of different age, ethnicity and religion. In Lars Eighner “On Dumpster Diving” he explains what he went through while being homeless. He describes how and what foods someone should be looking for and to always be conscious of what one is eating because there is always a reason why something has been thrown out. He continues to go into detail about other items that can be found in the dumpster like sheets to sleep on and pieces of paper to write on. Things that can keep him busy through the day. Eighner carefully explains to his readers how being a dumpster diver has become a life style for the homeless and this is how they survive. It’s a way of living and they are comfortable doing it. “I began dumpster diving about a year before I became homeless” (Eighner 713). He tries to bring us into the world of being homeless. It is hard to imagine what it would be like in that situation, and how could surviving as a dumpster diver be a way of survival? As a dumpster diver, Eighner is able to tell us what is ok to eat and have and what is not ok for your health. His essay starts by uttering some guidelines of what is and is not safe to eat. “Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using common sense for evaluating the food, knowing the dumpsters of the given areas and always ask, “Why was this discarded?” (Eighner 714).
Lars Eighner uses the appeal of ethos the most prominently in his book to prove he is credible, followed by an appeal logos by applying logic and pathos using stories.
A) Lars Eighner, in “On Dumpster Diving”, portrays the waste that is accumulated due to modern consumerism and materialism. He also demonstrates the issue of the wage gap. Consumers of the modern age spend too much and therefore waste too much. In the essay, Eighner describes life as an scavenger and demonstrates how people are able to live by the minimal resources. “Scavengers” are able to survive on the waste of the consumer. Eighner presents this scenario as a contrast to the life of a modern consumer, in order to portray it’s unnecessary wastefulness. Mainly, food seems to be taken lightly by society, as Eighner as a scavenger finds “a half jar of peanut butter”,
I agree with his assessment about society’s throw away mentality due to the fact that I have seen it myself first hand. Recently I helped my sister move out of her dorm room at NAU and I was horrified to see all the things and edible food she was just dumping and what was worse, she wasn’t the only one. All of the kids were getting rid of perfectly good items in the dumpster, so it’s no wonder that dumpsters near college campuses are one of Eighner’s favorite places to scavenge. In his article on page 3, Eighner elaborates on student’s wasteful habits, “but in the case of discards from student apartments, the answer may be that the item was discarded through carelessness, ignorance or wastefulness.” I believe agree with Eighner that some people have a pack rat mentality while others just throw it away. My parents are a good example of this and I think it has something to do with the way that they were raised. My mom is a pack rat, holding on to everything as long as possible and giving away to charity what she doesn’t want anymore. She squeezes every last drop out of a toothpaste tube or a shampoo bottle, while my dad will throw it away half empty. My mom was raised in a single parent household, where money was tight and you used what you had… my dad however, was raised in a more affluent home and money flowed more freely. In fact, my mom does her own dumpster diving fairly regularly in our garbage can by rescuing stuff out of the garbage that my dad has thrown away, including belts, pants, shirts and hardly worn tennis shoes. She doesn’t keep the goods, but instead gives it to Goodwill or the church clothing drive. My dad is her antithesis and is definitely part of the throw-away society. My dad has little sentiment attached to stuff and like Eichner mentioned on page 6, “knows there is plenty more where what we came from.” After reflecting on
This story explains the science behind dumpster diving and the different techniques people use to scavenge for treasures that was once other people's trash. The author, Lars Eighner, talks about the pros and cons of searching through dumpsters to find food or other items that could be useful when you do not have much money to spend on essentials. Lars Eighner told multiple stories of crazy things he would find that people would just throw away. He Explains why a college campus is one of his favorite places to scavenge through dumpsters because of all of the spoiled kids who are very wasteful and just throw stuff away. He says, “Students throw out canned goods and staples at the end of the semesters and when they give up college at
Hoarding is an addiction that is both socially debilitating and alarmingly enigmatic. While compulsive hoarding is classified as it’s own respective disorder, it is also a rather extreme form of addiction. Often kept under wraps and undiagnosed, attention is seldom brought to the secret lives of hoarders.
Have you ever thought about the possibilities of becoming homeless? I think about that almost every day; I try to comprehend and picture in my head the life as someone that lives on or off the streets of New York. New York isn’t one of the cleanest places in the United States, but it sure has one of the highest percentage rates in the U.S. for homeless people. In the 21st century, people raised in the U.S. are not taught about the struggles of homelessness and what they have to go through to survive; most people don’t plan on becoming homeless and became homeless due to the fluctuation in the market and various other problems. Also not only the homeless, but people in depth (people struggling to pay bills or drug addicts) and other people suffering also has to survive.
Compulsive hoarding has been universally defined by researchers as a chronic behavioral syndrome that is categorized by three unique qualities: the extreme retention and failure to dispose of an abundant quantity of useless objects, living environments so condensed with clutter that it compromises day-to-day living for its occupants, and finally a significant provocation of anxiety or distress caused by the hoarding (Franks et al. 79). Although the definition of compulsive hoarding is universally accepted, the cau...