Day 2 of my simplicity purge went as well as day one. It took me about 15 minutes to run through my kitchen and get rid of 80 items!!!
In today's purge I took a hint from Zen Habits:
"Don’t let your possessions own you. If you hold on to possessions because you feel it would be wasteful to get rid of them, they are controlling you. They are dictating your life, rather than you creating the life you want, living how you want to live. Let go of possessions and be free — living otherwise would be the true waste."
I used 3 basic criteria:
• Have I used it in 6 months?
• Do I (or anyone in the family) need it?
• Do I love it and when I see it does it bring me happiness?
In answering these questions, it made it very simple to eliminate so many things. I tackled my pantry full of useless dishware (seriously, 6 chargers? We are not a charger type of family... throw some pretty napkins on the place settings and call that fancy.) We have 6 laptops in the house and not just 1, but 2 that do not even work... Goodbye. I had 2 complete dish sets. Why the hell do I need to keep a complete dish set in a cabinet collecting dust?
I also eliminated projects that I have held on to for months (years) determined that I would get to them some day. Well, in letting go of them, I am also letting go of the stress that comes with looking at a pile of "to-do's" and somehow feeling incomplete and inadequate.
In just 2 days, I am already feeling so accomplished and more at ease. 5 more days and I think I will go well beyond my 200 item goal.
Purged today: 80 items
Grand total: 102 items
See Day 1 here.
This is the perfect time to do this. Before winter and being stuck in a cluttered house! I can't wait to get started.
ReplyDeleteI was so inspired by your post yesterday that I cleared out a bunch of ill-fitting clothes from my closet, I reorganized our crafts stuff, and found a better home for my knitting stash.
ReplyDeleteNext, I'm dumping the majority of my fabric stash; most of it was hand-me-downs from my grandmother. None of it's great stuff, and seeing as I'm the third generation in the family to be storing a bunch of it, I see it as my duty to make sure it stops with me. lol
I love the zen habits quote. We recently/finally moved the rest of the "stuff" out of our old house and into our new house, because we finally SOLD the old house. Um... my basement is like a scene out of "Hoarders." It is soooooo hard for me to give stuff away, but I am trying. Very nice post. Very inspirational.
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic!! Oh how I wish the kitchen here was mine to declutter!! I think tomorrow I will join you on your mission though and attack my room.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!
ReplyDeleteI think I should do the same.