Small steps toward simplicity

So much for the post-every-other-day-in-May challenge, eh? This upper respiratory infection is kicking my ass. I've been in such a brain fog the last several days that I could barely carry on a conversation beyond, "yeah... no... I don't know", much less write a blog post or two. Today was much better, though.

Lately I'm a bit obsessed with the minimalist and voluntary simplicity movements. Actually, it started a couple of years ago around mid-November when every store I had ever purchased anything from started sending out their Christmas catalogs. I started keeping track of them and by mid-December I had acquired 86 catalogs. A few were duplicates and several stores send 2 or more "different" holiday catalogs; either way, that's still a ridiculous number of catalogs. From there my desire to consume less from major corporations was born.

Though I began relying more on local shops, thrift stores, swaps and artisans, I was still consuming far more than my family needed; I was afflicted with "stuffitis". My children had overflowing toy boxes and bins and the toy room runneth over. Our book collections were too big for our bookshelves and ended up in cabinets, closets, and corners of our bedrooms. We had a closet shelf full of DVDs we never watched. We all had too many clothes to fit neatly into the drawer and closet spaces. And my craft supplies... well, let's just say I am not allowing myself to go into yarn or fabric stores until I use up most of what I already have.

I began to resent my stuff. I hated looking at it. I hated cleaning it. I hated how much space all of it took up in our house. The house I'd worked so hard to make into a home - a calming, comforting, nurturing environment - felt chaotic to me because of all the stuff.

I tried "organizing" all the stuff - putting it all neatly into bins and boxes and arranging it in attractive ways - but quickly learned that "organization" doesn't last long if one keeps bringing more and more stuff into the house without first getting rid of anything.

A few short months ago it became obvious to me what I had to do: get rid of stuff and stop buying stuff. So I read The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay and started following a few voluntary simplicity and minimalism blogs, and then I actually started getting rid of stuff.

The first purge was actually a yard sale last month. We sold several big-ticket items and lots of kitchen and baby stuff and a few odds-and-ends and came away with about $600. What didn't sell was immediately taken to Goodwill. I refused to hang onto any of the stuff any longer, because even if someone on Craigslist would have paid $10 for that bread machine, I did not want it back in my home for a single second. That was the changing moment for me, when I realized that whatever small monetary value any of our items held was far less than my desire to see things gone from our house.

After the yard sale I took a few weeks off from purging. We've been busy with family outings and gardening and family visits, but things are settling down again temporarily so this week I decided to tackle the media situation. I decided that we would only keep as many books, DVDs and video games as could fit on the two bookcases my husband made last year.

The kids had been using a bookshelf my grandfather built for me when I was a girl. It's a very nice bookshelf, but I decided we don't need it, so I think I'm going to pass it on to someone who does need one. It's somewhat difficult to let go of it, but I'm fine once I remind myself that the bookshelf is not my grandpa, and that I am keeping the toy box he made for my mother when she was a girl. So I went through all of the childrens' books and made a "keep" pile and a "donate" pile and within 20 minutes half of the childrens' books were in my trunk to be taken to Goodwill.

I then went through all of my cookbooks, craft books, history books, sociology books, novels, etc., and loaded up the van with more books to donate. And now we have only as many books - including children's books - as our bookcases can hold, and I love it. New Rule: When one comes in, one goes out.