Monday, December 31, 2012

How it started....me, become a minimalist?

Over a year ago, I was visiting a friend and talking about clutter, not hoarding level clutter. I was sharing with her that I was interested a single person could have so much stuff  even being the sole occupant of a three bedroom house, I had crowded closets and full drawers.  My friend said she'd heard the only way to conquer that was to get rid of 10 things every week. Hmmm...?

Like I said, I'm no hoarder. If you had visited my house last year, you would've thought I kept a neat house, friends even say, "must be nice not to have kids trashing your house".   Still, I've moved a lot, over ten times as an adult, and every time I give tons of stuff away and then am surprised when unpacking to find boxes of stuff I didn't know I had. Every year, I make two good passes through the whole house and load up stuff to take and donate, several times each year. I resolved to change the way I accumulate and store.  I resolved to be one of those people who lives with things only if they are beautiful, useful and/or I love them. Nothing else, all else must go.  And go it would - 10 things every week. 

As I started out, I headed to the kitchen and safely found myself prying open too full drawers and tossing misplaced single wine coasters in a box, including a pretty wine glass identifier that looks well, sortof like a hooker's boa.   What tha.,,,,.??? why did I even have that, and only one not a set!   I have no memory of who gave me that or why I kept it but there is was, a laughable possession.  and there were lots of laughs in the first  weeks.  As I began I just tossed items in a box and then took to Goodwill which was closest to me.  Over time, I developed a system of where to donate stuff depending on who the likely recipient would be, the type of item and the condition of items. I also developed a system for what 'counts' as one item - should a set of sheets be one item or 4,  as tempting as it became later in the year to count it as 4, I determined early on it was only 1 item, a "SET" of sheets.  I've learned a lot and beginning today I'm blogging about this experience hopefully to start someone else on a decluttering and life lesson about the stuff in our lives, why we got it, why we keep it and why we have trouble parting with it. ( I had no trouble parting with the pink boa wine glass coaster but now that I see it again, it is kinda special, isn't it..?)   Stay tuned for more on the journey from a middle aged material girl...   12.31.12