Fairly different eyes

For several days, the way home from work has been leading me through the booths of the local Christmas fair. Smells of food, mulled wine and incense cones wafting across the streets, and the glitter of Christmas decorations, plus plenty of christmas-y decorations for sale.
Before I started condensing myself and my possessions, it would have been an occasion to shop for candles, figurines, and other tchotchkes, and for stuffing my face with fat-dripping deep-fried donuts and sugary stuff.
After over a year of becoming more mindful, I find myself not even wanting to go at all those goodies any more.
Knowing that I have plenty of decorations at home, and remembering how many I did already declutter because they simply weren´t used any more, helps, of course.
So does the realization that most of the things sold at fairs are coming at decidedly un-fair prices.
If, for example, I wanted to eat a baguette with garlic butter on top, at the fair, that would set me back by about four bucks, and I would have to eat it standing up, in the cold. The same kind of baguette bought frozen from the grocery store and prepared and eaten sitting down  in the warmth of my home would cost me one buck, ok, plus electricity for the oven, but I could, at least, be certain everything is hygienic.
The prices for decorations, too, are sky-high when buying them at those pretty-looking booths. So, if I should want another polystone reindeer, I could get one at any chain store for half of what I´d pay at the fair, too.
And candles? I have, at home, an extensive collection of brass candle holders, and also several boxes full of candles I bought and didn´t use up in the past years. So, this year, I am determined to use up the candles I already have before shelling out my hard-earned moolah for yet another one. Doing so saves me money and also space, because once the candles will be gone, I do not intend to hoard as many again, especially not those big, tall ones that take ages to burn down, so, even if I burn a candle every night until Christmas, I will not even be able to use them up. I still have several partly burned down ones that are on the list of things to go, and by actually lighting them I´ll get more joy out of them than by having them take up a whole cupboard.
Provided, that is, that I won´t overstock on them again, but right now, seeing how long I have had them, that´s not likely.
In the meantime, I am enjoying the new-found spaces in my living room, and the realization that not keeping too many things in stock allows me to liberate space that can be used better.
Not indulging in those small things will allow me to go at bigger remodeling projects. After all, if I added up what I have already decluttered in terms of excess decorations, the money I spent on those would probably buy a new couch or flatscreen TV had I but kept it.
So, this year, I´ll keep my purse shut when walking through the fair, and my mind on those things that somehow keep getting postponed because the money that could have been used for them was frittered away on clutter.
Perhaps I´ll even set up a piggy bank. Not pigging out on deep-fried anythings any more and putting the savings to feeding it instead might fill it up rather fast. And then I can go at my next habitation improvement projects.


Julia