What do we need? An Electronics Inventory

Jo Hunter Adams

Recently, in an attempt to make our place feel a little more spacious, I've committed to taking inventories of most of our belongings. Hopefully, we'll see where we have more than we need. I've even tried to list every piece of clothing I have, to take an objective look at an overflowing cupboard. As I've been reading more on simplicity and following the devastation of the gulf after the BP explosion, I've felt tugged towards a more radical understanding of our needs. All our stuff needs more space, and space costs money, and to get money you need a lot of time.

Here's our electronic inventory, for your enjoyment:

Living room:
2 lamps
1 iMac (Eug's)
1 iBook (mine)
1 ipod (mine)
1 EeePC (Eug's)
1 Camera
1 Printer
1 Scanner (all our documents are stored electronically).
1 battery powered swing for Noah (which will only last until he's about 3 or 4 months old)

Big Cupboard
1 deep freeze
1 drill
1 circular saw
1 label maker

Kitchen
1 Bread Maker
1 Rotisserie (don't ask)
1 hand mixer
1 coffee grinder
1 Microwave
1 toaster oven
1 slow cooker
1 rice cooker

Bedroom
2 lamps
1 spare camera
1 old desktop computer (for watching movies or Hulu TV shows)

Bathroom
1 electric shaver
1 electric toothbrush
1 Laundry spinner

Other:
TomTom, our GPS friend.
3 cell phones (two are in use)

That's 33 things items requiring power! (excluding the stove (gas powered) and the ancient fridge, which both use vast amounts of energy, as well as built in lights and fans).

We have quite a few things, particularly kitchen appliances, that would make so much sense to "borrow" from a community resource when we need them. I love love love our breadmaker, for example, but it's just not something we use every day. What do you think of having a bank for electronics that you only use once a week or once a month?

Noah Update
Noah's growing really well. Eug has started feeding him one bottle of breastmilk a day, to gradually prepare him for my return to work. We're transitioned to Bumgenius 3.0 (from GDiapers). That will demand another post next week, but we like them very much. We're also doing Elimination Communication, in our own way. Sometimes we save diapers, sometimes not, but there's really no down side. Sitting with Noah with his tupperware takes about 5 minutes, washing out even one really poopy diaper seems to take forever.