Making peace with minimalism

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?)