
Photo by christopher.woo
I spent my lunch break today reading blogs on minimalism. I am impressed and depressed by the entire concept.
Impressed by:
- the freedom and detachment that minimalists seem to get from living with only the bare necessities of life.
- the look of vast expanses of cleared space.
- the savings in time, money and stress.
- the courage it takes to give things up.
Depressed by:
- how far I have to go.
- how cluttered my life and my time are right now.
- how much time and money I have spent on acquiring all of this.
- the fear that keeps me clinging to things that I know are just things.
I need to remind myself that everyone comes to minimalizing / downsizing / decluttering with their own set of issues and at their own stage in life. Joshua at The Minimalists gave away 90% of his belongings in a two-year period; Colleen at 365 Less Things decluttered one thing per day; Benita at Chez Larsson has always been streamlined – it’s just her style. I have made a huge amount of progress over time by getting rid of things in fits and starts and trying to buy and acquire less. Now I have made a commitment to release something from my life each day, and in less than a month, it has become enough of a habit that I will leap out of bed and go find something to get rid of if I haven’t remembered to do so before then. That’s progress.
I just need to remind myself that progress is all I need right now.
- {Clutter} released: A big sign that says “CAUTION – Children at Play” and a pill sorter.
- {Perfectionism} released: I bit my tongue as David pruned the bushes in a way that I would not have chosen to prune them. (How’s that for a diplomatically-worded sentence?)
Hey, he pruned the bushes – that’s grrrrreat!
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Actually, re-pruned is a better descriptor. Quinland and I had pruned them and he didn’t like how they turned out, so he fixed them. But then he pruned the rhododendrons, so I can’t complain.
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