The Side Effects of Minimizing

Taking the time to consider each of your possessions and determine if they are useful and bring joy to your life can have some unintended consequences.

At this moment you're probably thinking something negative...like all of the time it takes to go through your stuff.  Or perhaps the emotional turmoil of parting with things you've been hanging on to for so long...

Well you would be mistaken...I mean unintended as a positive thing.

I've found that there are "projects" I've left undone that were just waiting for me to return to them, such as:

• I have pictures that I took down from my bedroom walls, when it was repainted 2 years ago, that have not been put back up.
• Yarn that I've been saving for a crocheting project.
• Kids artwork that is waiting to be framed and hung

This weekend I took some time and handled those things that have been lingering...and you know what?

It felt just as good to get the picture hung back up in my room as it did to get rid of 22 items of clothing a couple of weeks ago.

Having things finished feels amazing.  

It leaves you with a sense of weight being lifted off of your shoulders...weight that you didn't even know existed.

I found that some of the artwork I was holding on to for framing perhaps didn't ALL need to be held on to.  I selected some of my favorite pieces that the kids have created and recycled the rest.

It may sound a little callous to have disposed of some of their work...but really what were they going to do with it?  It's been on a shelf for a couple of months and no one has even asked about the various pieces.

The creation of the art is what is exhilarating and thinking back to the time they created each piece with their friends is a fond memory...we don't need the actual item to keep that good feeling alive.

So what I would like to know is if you have unfinished projects in your house?

Are they ones you could knock out quickly?  If so why not tackle one or two of them and enjoy the freeing feeling. 

Also a small update on the items I've been purging.  I was lucky enough to sell a pair of shoes today and yesterday I gave away a charm bracelet that I've had for several years and never worn (the charm isn't even on the bracelet yet).

Let The Games Begin

Well this weekend I started my first of 12 thirty day challenges...so as my Minecraft cartoon depicts...Let The Games Begin.

The first challenge is to donate, or sell, an item each day.  As I started to go through my closet Saturday I discovered that I had about 20 things I could get rid of.

These things were all in good shape but they weren't things that I wear and they just take up space in my drawers where I would prefer to have ample room for the items that I do love and wear all the time.

So I decided to amend my challenge and just make sure that every day I am getting rid of something(s).

For Sunday I weeded through a basket of old kids toys that the children no longer play with and bagged them up to donate.  I didn't take a picture because the items were a bit scattered looking...but there will be some small child that will find them in Goodwill and will hopefully get as much joy out of them as my children did.

Today I am putting the basket up for sale that those toys were residing in.

It's a really cute basket that I picked up years ago at Ten Thousand Villages.  After some thought about whether I could make use of it again I decided that it would only hinder the efforts to get rid of things if I kept an item of storage.  So again I hope whoever ends up with this will love it and pass it on when it no longer serves a purpose for them.

These three days have been really exciting and it just made me want to go through the entire house and purge purge purge....but in an effort not to burn myself out OR to be consumed by purging I am taking it small steps at a time.

To support my challenges each month I will be trying to read books on the subject at hand.  The first book I completed in this endeavor is Clutter Free by Kathi Lipp.  The book was fantastic.  I borrowed it through digital library loan so that I wouldn't be bringing in an item to learn about how to get rid of things...that just seemed like a sensible thing to do.  Kathi writes easily digestible chapters that give you examples of what she is doing on suggestions for how you yourself can be more clutter free.

My favorite chapter was on not bringing items into your house and talked about ways to get your family and close friends on board so that you can give experiences, gift cards, or time to one another so as not to wrap up another item that would need to be cared for the gift receiver.

So what I want to do know is are you trying to be more clutter free?  Or do you find it difficult to get stuff out of your house?

This month I'll will keep a tally of the items I move on and will put up book reviews and encouraging articles on the topic in an effort to get you on board with me...it will be a fun trip we can take together.