What Can’t You Live Without? – Part 3
July 9, 2017
In my “What can’t you live without?” Series, I’ve asked the question on big items as well as my favorite room, the kitchen. This time, I’ll look at the conveniences, some big and others small, that I take for granted and would be hard pressed to live without.
Camera
So I do own a powerful smartphone with a camera, a really great camera. However, I’ve kept and continue to use when I travel, a long-lens DSLR camera. I’ve owned it for more than five years, and the technology within it is easily seven years old. While my iPhone has the same megapixels as my Nikon DSLR, I can’t imagine trying to take telephoto pictures, when distance is a challenge. Often I want a close-up of a subject and while the digital zoom on my phone is great up to about 4X, a true 10X optical zoom can’t be beat. I use both in tandem, now, choosing the iPhone for up-close or near photographs, and the DSLR with the 300mm long lens for when distance is a challenge. Do I still need it? No. Will I replace it someday, probably.
Clothes Washing Machine and Dryer
Especially the dryer. I can’t imagine doing laundry entirely by hand. While possible and people have done for millenia, it simply isn’t a requirement any longer. I have a few friends who have a washing machine and no dryer. In the Florida humidity and unpredictable rain showers, they find themselves often running out to get the clothes off the line at any hour of the day. Nope, I need the convenience of a dryer. It just suites me.
Air Conditioning
Yes, could I live without it? Sure. I have before, but why on God’s earth would I when I call the sunshine state home? It’s been in the mid to upper 90s and it’s only July this summer. My AC is struggling to keep up, but I’m not going to turn it off, maybe turn it up a bit. I do have it set to get warmer during the day when I’m not home, but mid 70s is non-negotiable especially in the summer months. Those without AC, but insist they don’t need it, are living in denial and Deep South residents in a special kind of crazy denial.
Automatic Coffee Maker
Yes, I could use a stove-top percolator in the morning to make coffee and add at least 20 minutes to my morning routine, or I can put the water, coffee, and push two buttons on my automatic drip coffee maker that brews a day’s worth of coffee for me while I’m in the shower. Perfect. I pour my first cup into my travel mug and the rest into a traditional thermos to keep warm and drink at a fraction of the cost throughout the day. This $20 convenience device is worth every penny in bringing me up-to-speed each morning for what awaits the day. I’m addicted to coffee and this contraption is the injectible equivalent of an epi-pen.
What convenience items could you not live without? While your life might exist, what items make life worth living?
Post Tags:
conveniences, minimalism, What Can't You Live Without,