The Simple Life

[Apathy]

Decorations? Why should I decorate?
If I buy that I'll use it a couple of times and then it will collect dust in the corner.
Fashion? Why should I buy new clothes when I can still use my old ones?

Some of this may be due to my dislike towards shopping and my "Laziness", but I find that I am perfectly content with sparsely furnished living conditions, and I don't even buy most of those electronic gadgets that come out. All I need are the basic needs, something interesting to study, and some entertainment on my downtime. A single computer can nearly provide everything I need other than those basic needs.

Why spend when I can save? Maybe sometime in life I will have enough that I can spend it on some big project that I wish to accomplish.

Simplicity of lifestyle seems to be an INTP trait.

Do any of you find that others disapprove of your living conditions due to this lifestyle?

 

[Agent Intellect]

people constantly ask me why i haven't bought a new wardrobe since i lost a bunch of weight. in my opinion, clothes serve a few practical purposes to me, i don't care how they look. everything i own is pretty much black, grey, or dark blue anyway. and i've only just gotten a cell phone about nine months ago, only two names on it lol. maybe its an INTP trait, but simplicity of life of certainly one of MY traits.

 

[Dissident]

Thats so like me.
All that useless stuff people own end up owning them, I dont have energy to spare in those.
I refuse to get a cell phone, people think you are weird if you dont have one these days, I have an MP4 tho.

 

[Fedayeen]

I agree with everything except the electronics. I've got to have my gaming consoles.

 

[Jordan~]

I'll admit I'm spoilt. :P
I enjoy luxury, but I can certainly live without it, so long as my surroundings are basic rather than unpleasant. I feel very uncomfortable if I feel my environment is... tacky, or unclean (badly decorated and dusty is my worst nightmare). I agree about clothes, but I would love to decorate - If I have enough money one day, I'll build myself a house. If I have even more money, I'll have all the furniture custom made. I have a pretty expensive taste in food. I do like to look nice, but I don't follow fashion - mostly I wear long-sleeved T-shirts in grey, black or white and jeans, all designer (I know the label doesn't make a difference, but I feel more comfortable knowing that they're not out of some horrible little cheap shop). I'd have my clothes tailored if I could afford it. Certainly, I could live simply, so long as my environment was aesthetically pleasing as well as simple. I don't really like elaborate things much, not when they're just gaudy. I like a more subtle, austere kind of beauty.

 

[icywindow]

I've been told that if I were to get a house, people would be probably appalled and simultaneously astounded because I tend to have odd and gaudy taste - hobo chic is how one friend coined it, though I've become more conservative with my taste in the last few years. The main reason is that all of the tacky stuff fits the colors that I like and is usually the last one there because no one wants to buy it, and it's 90% off

 

[Titania]

I've always been the stingy one in my family. I buy just what I need when I need. Even advertisements don't really affect on me. But my mum and sister: they would buy anything if it was in sale.
The same thing with the clothes. My motive to buy them is more to cover my body, not to look good. The good look is a big plus ofcourse, but not the main thing. Comfyness goes first. And maybe because I don't give so special value to the clothes, I'm not eager to pay much for them, either. If a t-shirt costs more than 10 € , I think " nah, I'll spend the money on something more important. "

I'm not very into decorating either - even thought I once put the old potato sack on the wall of my room just because it looked cool. I took it off quite soon 'cause it smelled so bad...
But yeah, why should I clutter my enviroment with unnecessary, useless stuff when the useful things are doing that already. Ofcourse I don't totally ignore what my living space looks like: the colors and furnitures and textiles are important, but I don't get the decorative items...
I still live with my family - obviously 'cause I'm 15 - but I've imagined what kind of apartment I would like to have in the future: just the basic stuff and a computer ( not as ascetic as my friend's dream house, believe me). Comfy but simple - and easy to keep clean ;P .

Btw welcome aboard, icywindow .

 

[icywindow]

Thanks, Titania.

Just have to stop the frivolous spending, usually on food or electronics or... I suppose school isn't frivolous, is it?

I suppose that expands into a slightly different question, perhaps. Does the simple life for you tend to also extend into your food choices? I know that's the one area of my life where I'll consistently spend more money just because the quality is better, or perceived benefit is there (example, vitamin water and odwalla greenfood stuff).

 

[fullerene]

ew... Vitamin water is not good for you... lol and I don't even think it tastes good. I despise food studies they show (and reverse) on the news all the time, but I'd definitely spend more for the food that I want as well.

haha, AI sums me up (again, *shakes fist*), down to the color of clothes and the fact that I got my cell phone about 12 1/2 months ago, lol. My mom is constantly trying to get me to buy new clothes or shoes every year, and it frustrates the hell out of me. "These clothes aren't falling apart yet... no I don't care if the gray is fading!" The shoes are the best... I've put on shoes less than a dozen times since summer started, and I started wearing them back in March or April. Shoes don't get old if you don't wear them, mom... leave me alone!

Jordan, are you sure you're not a J btw? The more I see from you, the more you seem like one. At least, you seem a hell of a lot more like my INTJ friend in real life than you do like me.

 

[Wisp]

Could always just be a very mild P.

 

[Radioactive_Springtime]

Eh I'd deffinetly say that simplicity in my life is because of my limited budget and being easily distracted.

I would like to get fancy clothing, because no matter how you look at it appearance can be very important socially. I usually just wear jeans and ts.

I would Looooooove to have cash to waste on fancy foods. Because I love good food. Electronics I don't spend alot on (basic cell phone, Ipod).

Really I would like to learn to both cook and make my own clothing. Really been thinking about the latter the last couple weeks.

 

[Wisp]

I'd spend piles of cash on electronics and forego all those useless things, like eating, or sleeping.

 

[Kuu]

I'll admit I'm spoilt. :P
I enjoy luxury, but I can certainly live without it, so long as my surroundings are basic rather than unpleasant. I feel very uncomfortable if I feel my environment is... tacky, or unclean (badly decorated and dusty is my worst nightmare). I agree about clothes, but I would love to decorate - If I have enough money one day, I'll build myself a house. If I have even more money, I'll have all the furniture custom made. I have a pretty expensive taste in food. I do like to look nice, but I don't follow fashion - mostly I wear long-sleeved T-shirts in grey, black or white and jeans, all designer (I know the label doesn't make a difference, but I feel more comfortable knowing that they're not out of some horrible little cheap shop). I'd have my clothes tailored if I could afford it. Certainly, I could live simply, so long as my environment was aesthetically pleasing as well as simple. I don't really like elaborate things much, not when they're just gaudy. I like a more subtle, austere kind of beauty.

You've been reading my mind, haven't you?

I rarely buy stuff so I do consider myself simple, but what little things I do buy, they must be top quality. It doesn't matter if it is designer or not as long as it is well made. Food, clothes, electronics, whatever. A store clerk once told my mom that I "had an eye for the best" which didn't make her entirely happy...

And I am always dreaming of my custom built house with my custom built furniture, my tailored clothes, and my custom built electro-mechanical house gadgets...

subtle beauty it is...

In fact, I have to confess that I also usually don't buy much stuff because I am too nitpicky... no flaw escapes me, and they are unacceptable. A friend always tells me that I complain to much about everything...

 

[Jesin]

A friend always tells me that I complain to much about everything...

I always say that to a friend of mine! Are you the Ferret in disguise? I doubt it.

 

[Jordan~]

You've been reading my mind, haven't you?

I rarely buy stuff so I do consider myself simple, but what little things I do buy, they must be top quality. It doesn't matter if it is designer or not as long as it is well made. Food, clothes, electronics, whatever. A store clerk once told my mom that I "had an eye for the best" which didn't make her entirely happy...

And I am always dreaming of my custom built house with my custom built furniture, my tailored clothes, and my custom built electro-mechanical house gadgets...

subtle beauty it is...

In fact, I have to confess that I also usually don't buy much stuff because I am too nitpicky... no flaw escapes me, and they are unacceptable. A friend always tells me that I complain to much about everything...

I'm the same. I don't buy very much at all, but it has to be good. I was actually thinking of the roof of the Parthenon as in your avatar when I wrote some of that, interestingly enough. :P

I adore things that are crafted. I'd love to live in an era before mass production, when everything was made by people who had pride in their work and paid attention to detail. There's something so romantic about it compared to how things are today.

 

[Aphasia]

I keep certain parts of my personal spaces (e.g: my desk) excessively neat and uncluttered, while leaving piles of ordered chaos here and there. I confuse myself sometimes with my dual habits :1 I usually don't feel like or want to own stuff, but I sometimes feel like buying odd trinkets or shiny/ pretty things. In other words, if I'll ever own a house, one half will be so clean as to look uninhabited, and the other will look like a flea market.

 

[icywindow]

I keep certain parts of my personal spaces (e.g: my desk) excessively neat and uncluttered, while leaving piles of ordered chaos here and there. I confuse myself sometimes with my dual habits :1 I usually don't feel like or want to own stuff, but I sometimes feel like buying odd trinkets or shiny/ pretty things. In other words, if I'll ever own a house, one half will be so clean as to look uninhabited, and the other will look like a flea market.

!!! Yes! Yes! Same way with other things, usually there's some disparity in the rooms I inhabit. If it's my space, I keep it... messy, but then there's a threshold to where I must clean. When it gets clean, it looks organized. If it's someone else's area, I try to leave it same as the way I found it. If it's important, it must be organized to a point. Sometimes that organization is somewhere at the bottom of my messenger bag, though XD

 

[Vrecknidj]

I prefer not to stand out, and so I dress that way.

Dave

 

[Kidege]

what little things I do buy, they must be top quality. It doesn't matter if it is designer or not as long as it is well made. Food, clothes, electronics, whatever.

I dress almost only in jeans and white t-shirts, but the jeans are designer. I buy shoes about twice a year, but they are very comfy and hard to find models, some times locally and hand made. My white shirts have to be spotless, always completely white.
What other clothes are wear are either designed and tailored just for me, or what you can find in any Walmart.

I have put off buying a new laptop because the models aren't good enough. In the meantime, I'm saving for the top of the line expensive toy *cough* tool I want. If it turns out not to be as good as I dream, Lenovo will be hearing from me.

I design my own furniture as much as the budget allows. It's strictly functional. My walls are white. I do like decoration, but for me it consists in moving the furniture around to change the pattern every few weeks or months. It's all about the simple lines that will allow for clutter but won't turn it into chaos.

We make a big deal of simple things, don't we?

 

[Ermine]

For me, it's not simple as much as it is "no nonsense".

For the interior design aspect, I can't stand "doodads" that are designed to sit around on a shelf. Everything has to have a reason to be there. Just me, my gear, cool furniture, and great colors on the wall.

Fashion is a whole other issue since I'm a girl and artist. But I still have a no nonsense policy. I've found that the best way for people to notice me is for me to wear great outfits worth complimenting. Then I don't have to make the first move when conversation is necessary.

 

[loveofreason]

Do not like Stuff. Do not need Stuff.

Stuff is any mass produced garbage.

Something that particularly grates on me is the deluded masses all thinking they're expressing their individuality by buying something that's been mass produced, or by following a trend.

I'd make a very happy beachcomber assembling my space from stuff that I find.

If I am going to spend money on something then I want to spend it only once. ie. it has to be the best quality and last longer than I'm going to.

****
"Underground overground, wombling free
The wombles of Wimbledon Common are we

Making good use of the things that we find
Things that the everyday folk leave behind"

****

 

[Ogion]

I don't like stuff either. I decide to buy a thing or so by its function. And i need very few things actually. But that's no rigid rule i follow, that is just my normal behaviour. And of course there are exceptions. Like on the other hand, i tend to keep things because i think i could need them again sometime.

I mean, i hve a few things which could be called decor in my room, and i find a beautifully ecorated house nice, but it would be wasted on me, bcause i would lok at it the first time, say "Beautiful" and then probably would ignore all the deco afterwards

Ogion

 

[Agent Intellect]

i've never understood why people give (or for that matter, enjoy receiving) shit like candles and stuff for christmas/birthdays. it seems like such a waste of a gift and a waste of money to me. i really don't understand the need to have things look a certain way. why does a room or a house need a theme? why do people need to dress themselves in flashy outfits? do people really need pictures of family members around to remind them that they have a family or something? i'd definitely say that i'm a true minimalist, that as long as i had an internet connection and enough food to sustain myself, i wouldn't really need anything else.

 

[fullerene]

I would have thought I was the exact same, til I visited this other house over the summer... it was so fantastically decorated that I actually noticed. I have no idea if I would just be like Ogion, enjoying it for a little then forgetting about it... but after 2 days of staying there I was still pretty amazed whenever I walked into another room. Before that I didn't think decorations mattered at all... but even now I still definitely don't bother to decorate. It was just sweet in the way that I wanted to go around the house taking pictures. I thought that would be in poor taste, though, and anyway I didn't have a camera ... so I contented myself with paying special attention to my amazement and imprinting that feeling to memory instead.

Wow it was worth it...

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

For me life is about as simple as it gets since i dont see much value in objects or people. I dress mainly in a plain t shirts and basketball shorts. I dont care about the way i look unless i think it will attract unwanted attention. I have never had to buy my own clothes and have rarely ever picked what has been bought for me so i dont know how i will dress once i have to buy new clothes, it probably wont be any different. In my room there isn't much space so i couldn't decorate even if i wanted to. I stick to the basic things, i have my tv sitting on top of my stereo, bed is on the floor, my computer is on the floor next to my dresser, the screen is on the dresser and my keyboard is in my lap. The room is messy about 95% of the time, there are empty plastic cups and papers all over my computer dresser, wires ran to every side of the room for my stereo, my guitar is always sitting around...then there is the infamous pile of clothes at the end of my bed that consists of clothes i have wore but don't like due to fit issues or whatever and have left there.

Lol after reading this through and looking around me at my room i realize i need to clean up... Anyway what i was getting around to mentioning is i have always dreamed of a simple life, living somewhere in the mountains or woods in an amazing home, some kind of hut or earth covered shelter like the hobbits in lord of the rings. I always pictured this as being a home i would live in if i were rich or hit the lottery or something. i would be able to go on an adventure on a dirt bike or race into town in a [insert favorite sports car] down back roads. Never having to worry about dealing with anyone i didnt bring myself into contact with, would never have to worry about police harassing me for smoking my green....it would be perfect....*eyes open wide drooling while he daydreams*

 

[Agent Intellect]

I would have thought I was the exact same, til I visited this other house over the summer... it was so fantastically decorated that I actually noticed. I have no idea if I would just be like Ogion, enjoying it for a little then forgetting about it... but after 2 days of staying there I was still pretty amazed whenever I walked into another room. Before that I didn't think decorations mattered at all... but even now I still definitely don't bother to decorate. It was just sweet in the way that I wanted to go around the house taking pictures. I thought that would be in poor taste, though, and anyway I didn't have a camera ... so I contented myself with paying special attention to my amazement and imprinting that feeling to memory instead.

Wow it was worth it...

even something like that i could see myself doing (but probably not) but what i REALLY couldn't see myself doing is having the urge to decorate my OWN place like that.

 

[Jordan~]

So this doesn't seem to be an "INTP thing". There are those of us who seemongly really don't care about aesthetics, those of us who obsess over them, and those of us who are somehwere in between... Of course, it's possible that this has something to do with upbringing. It would be interesting to look at things like parents' types to see if there's a correlation there. My mum's an ISFP, and a very artistic person. Though she doesn't paint or anything (she used to sing professionally), she loves decorating and I think it's sort of rubbed off on me. There are a lot of similarities in our tastes. When we were in London, I enjoyed the Victoria and Albert Museum (a sort of anthropological art gallery - it's quite odd, it's basically a huge collection of artworks from around the world) far more than I thought I would, and the same pieces generally caught our eyes. The building was stunning, too, we leaned out of a window pointing out details in the facade to eachother for about ten minutes. :P

 

[Agent Intellect]

i don't think i've ever gotten anything (emotionally or otherwise) out of art (as far as paintings and pictures go). i love music, which is an art form, but people will often say "wow, look at that picture, isn't that amazing?" and i'm thinking "its just a picture of a damn tree". i think i'd be bored out of my mind in a museum looking at paintings lol.

 

[Jordan~]

There were very few paintings. :P It was mostly physical artefacts, like furniture, jewellery, carpets, carvings and engravings, wall hangings, ornately decorated everyday objects, archaeological artefacts (the oldest was more then 10,000 years old) etc.; though they did have a huge hall of sculptures and another of murals.
I love art, on more than one occasion I've cried at a painting. :P

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

Sorry if i gave the idea i don't care about aesthetics, i can appreciate beauty but i cant imagine ever getting emotional about art... music is completely different, i can zone out listening to certain types of music, a song i really like often gives me a shiver down my back and the hair on my neck stands up, if thats not appreciation i don't know what is lol. As for as the artifacts and cave hangings Jordan mentions, i would probably find them interesting, they would probably make zone out and imagine what life was like back then which would be pretty wicked.

 

[hikky]

I've always felt I should decorate my walls with something (They've always been completely blank), but I just never really cared about it quite enough to actually do it. My wardrobe is pitiful, and I've only bought one pair of shoes in the last ~5 years, and that was just because I needed running shoes. It's been a hell of a long time since I owned a cellphone, and really all I'd need to get by normally is a room, a computer, food and water.

 

[Kuu]

i can appreciate beauty but i cant imagine ever getting emotional about art... music is completely different

A good percent of art is intellectual, not emotional. Knowing the intellectual underpinnings of art is crucial to its enjoyment. Not so with most music. Music is mostly emotional.

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

I agree but when i said emotional i was considering when Jordan~ said on several occasions painting had brought him to tears. Sorry for not being more clear lol. I may be wrong but i do think music is more intellectually stimulating then emotionally..or at least it is for me... i have emotional reactions like i mentioned before but i get way more out of thinking about the different complexities of the music.

 

[zxc]

A good percent of art is intellectual, not emotional. Knowing the intellectual underpinnings of art is crucial to its enjoyment. Not so with most music. Music is mostly emotional.

I would say it depends on the music, and depends on the art.

The music I like is perhaps more intellectual than emotional. It really does depend.

 

[Ermine]

I think music and art can be both. It all depends on the person making the music or art. When it comes to quality art and music, the more emotional the artist, the more emotional the music or art is.

I am an artist and musician, and I've found that while it has emotion, it's more conceptual just because that's my stronghold, and I don't have much emotional fuel to begin with.

 

[Dissident]

Why art on one side and music on the other? Its like saying sport is good for your health but football is fun! (it makes no sense)

 

[Aphasia]

Because the word 'art' is usually used to refer to visual art. Technically, (most) music is art, but visual arts and music are pretty different, so... it's like that.

 

[Dissident]

What about movies?
(yeah, I know, most of them are not very artistic, but still)

 

[Agent Intellect]

What about movies?
(yeah, I know, most of them are not very artistic, but still)

or a skyscraper, or genetically enhanced corn? those could also be considered works of art, as someone had to make them using a bit of creativity.

 

[Kuu]

^^ well there's a real fuzzy subject to debate... the line between art, craftsmanship, production, and science.


I know that it depends. I always know there are exceptions, but I'm talking about the generalized rule. You're talking about the edges of the bell curve...

Movies range a lot from very emotional to very intellectual. Its literature combined with photography. It can also be both at the same time...