Over the past year, we've been on the path to minimalism, and though Ben has seen the progress we've made, it's taken me a bit longer (he's seen it because we've gotten rid of so many boxes from the garage that he would've otherwise had to carry the next time we moved). I know we've been donating a lot of things, but the amount of stuff we've gotten rid of didn't really hit me until this month!
Recently, I've been taking the approach of "does it spark joy" to determine if something is worth keeping or not. It comes from the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. I've read most of the book, and she has a lot of good advice, that "spark joy" saying is my favorite, however, I believe there are different paths people can take to get to the same result. I think she takes the approach she does because it ensures people make a conscious decision to let go of things, and that works for many people who need help letting go. I've already gotten to the point where I've made the decision to let go, it's just a matter of going through everything and sorting. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, it's just not the exact approach I am taking with everything (though, below you'll see that I took her approach with the last bit of books we owned).
Today, for example, I pulled out every single book we owned (with the exception of my Archie comic collection that I started acquiring at age seven) and laid them all out on the living room floor. I picked up every single one and made a decision as to whether to keep or give away. All in all, in addition to three book series that are pretty long, I kept only about 20 books...that's from about 120-150 books from today's pile...and many hundreds over the past year. My book collection is so small now...it's a little sad, but I decided to only keep the ones that really meant something to me. The rest can be borrowed from a library to read again, or were destined to never be read in our household. I gave up books (classics), that I had bought so our kids could read them when they're older, when realized that not even I had read some of those books and I'm no worse off than if I had. Of course I kept the "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" series, but sadly, we had to get rid of our "Chronicles of Narnia" book because it was consolidated into one book and it was falling apart...that's one we'll definitely have to buy later since the kids are old enough to start reading that on their own. As for the Archie collection, I had originally kept them because I really wanted my kids to enjoy them...well, my kids have absolutely no interest in Archie comics, or any comics for that matter...awww. So, that huge rubber storage container that holds my hundreds of Archie comics in the garage will soon be donated in order to, hopefully, make some other kid(s) smile.
We also went through some more clothes today...let go of more items. And, finally, this weekend I've been sorting through paperwork...years and years of it...soooo much paperwork! I looked for every duplicate piece I could find and threw all those copies into the shred pile!! I still have some more paper piles to go through (I sorted them by category first to make it easier), but only a few--I am so happy about that!! After I finish, I plan to scan them all in and keep two digital copies so if one set gets damaged, I still have another.
All the sorting and donating is so much work, but it is so worth it. I feel like I'm regaining my sense of control at home...I don't feel so cluttered or distracted by STUFF!! I can focus on family and traveling, and eventually a business. :)
It's a great sense of relief...
No comments:
Post a Comment