Revisiting old autoethnographic pictures
I apply minimalism principles also to electronic items. I don't keep the files and emails that I consider unnecessary. Recently I revisited some electronic folders that contained my old academic works. There were cover letters to journals, old versions of my manuscripts, notes accompanying my articles. I also found some old autoethnographic pictures. If one goes to the very beginning of this autoethnography, they will see these pictures. It was interesting for me to see these photos because many of the objects either live with me, or with my fellow humans, or they were replaced by similar ones. All these pictures were taken with the same phone I am using now.
These pictures are from 2 years ago. At that time, I lived in northern Sweden. In the picture above is my 20 sq. m. studio apartment. It's perhaps my most favourite apartment where I've ever lived. Its size was perfect for me. The apartment was well designed and the windows faced south-west, so it always received wonderful light. Living in that apartment felt like living in a tiny house. All the furniture (the bed, the table and 2 chairs) and even the bedding belonged to the housing company. The only decoration I had was a reindeer antler that was given to me as a gift and that I then gave to a fellow human. In the picture above there is a backpack I used to have, a laptop cover, my laptop that I still use, a seat cushion that I gave to a friend when I moved to Finland, and sweatpants. The sweatpants wore out and I replaced them with identical ones.
In the picture above, there is the same handkerchief I use to this day. It's somewhat worn, but it still serves me well. It's many years old. I got it when I still lived in England.
In the picture below, there are some glasses that I borrowed from my university department in northern Sweden. Before I moved, I returned these items and other kitchen items that I borrowed. Most of the kitchen items I lived with, I borrowed from the department.
There were some kitchen items that I bought, and one of them is in the picture below. It's a lunch/food storage box made from glass. When a friend visited me, he said he wanted a lunch box like this. I gave mine to him, alongside several other items such as the seat cushion, a throw and a towel.
The items below I gave away to my colleagues just before I left Sweden and moved to Finland. It might seem wasteful, but these were some of the heaviest items and I asked my friend in Finland if I could borrow the same ones from him. I knew I would not need to re-purchase them.
The watch in the picture below was a sentimental item and also something that I used to wear. It was a gift from my previous partner. When I moved to Sweden from England, I wanted to take one sentimental item with me. And it was this watch. I also loved using it to know what time it was instead of using my phone. This is because it could be tempting to check emails and so on every time I looked at my phone. Over time I changed the settings. I took the watch to Finland with me. I gave it to a colleague who liked it.
Below is my laptop that is many years old. It lived with me in England, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
In the picture below is a bar of soap packaged in cardboard. Naturally, I don't have it anymore as I used it. I use soap every day for multiple purposes. I am not loyal to any particular brand of soap, and in every country where I've lived, I found small, independent companies that sold natural, minimally packaged or unpackaged, locally produced soap.
In the picture below is a balm that a friend gave to me as a gift. She brought it from Germany. The lip balm is packaged in paper. I used it up years ago, but then I bought a very similar one from a small Swedish company and I keep it in my backpack and use it at times. My partner uses it too.
This beautiful spider plant was a gift from a friend. She brought it all the way to Sweden from northern Finland. It grew very quickly. I couldn't take it with me as I was carrying everything that I had, and the journey was very long. I was moving from northern Sweden to southern Finland in the middle of winter by train and ferry. I had to walk a lot in very low temperatures. A colleague adopted the plant.
I still have the bag in the picture below. I use them to store underwear and socks. Initially, I bought them in England many years ago to buy and store vegetables. Over time, I realised that I didn't need them for this purpose and began to use them for clothing and other items.
