34 posts tagged “365less”

There's something freeing about living out of a suitcase.  There's the notable weight that falls back on your shoulders when you come back home, unlock the door, and see all your stuff just as you left it.  It got me thinking about living light again.

You ever have something on your mind, and you see it again and again in unexpected places?  It feels like the Universe is trying to tell you something, trying to get your attention.

There was the weight of coming back to a house full of stuff, then the article I read on living off just what you need (frugality) and how much money you'll find you have, then the documentary I caught on sustainable living and how much happier people seem to be with just the essentials in their lives.

I have excess.  I have excess stuff, excess weight, excess debt.  I have so much stuff that when I want to do something, just something fun, I'm overwhelmed with choices and often let hours slip by just trying to decide what to do.

I'm sitting here looking at my stuff and thinking I should get rid of some of this, "but I love that thing, and that one is useful, and everyone should have one of those,..." and yet I haven't touched, seriously haven't even *touched*, any of those things in six months or more.  Sadly, not even to dust them.

I was thinking about my email archives the other day.  I save a lot of emails, the touching ones, the special occasion ones.  They're just electrons, don't even need dusting, so what's the harm?  I kind of like to know they're there should I one day want to revisit the memories.  BUT, I have *NEVER*, ever, not once gone back into my archives to stroll down memory lane.  I entertained a brief thought of deleting them without even looking in them.  There was a light moment of elation, and then the fear that I'd lose something really good.  But what?  I have the memories.   And some day if I forget, it'll only be because I have other more current memories.  What's the loss really?  Isn't that just the flow of life.

I saved everything from my wedding, from the flower arrangements to the receipt for the hall.  I still have the guestlist, the DJ contract, even the planning software I used.  The box I put everything in has sat on top of my craft cabinet collecting dust for years.  All I really want from my wedding is my husband, the memories, my photo album and my dress, and even the dress could probably be better used elsewhere.

This is my life, collections of stored, dusty stuff.  My days are spent sitting around trying to decide what to do next because I'm too overwhelmed to just do something.  I don't want a dusty life in storage, I want a dynamic, moving life.

Last year I set a goal to have 365 less things in my possession by the end of the year, and I hit that goal at least twice, probably three times before the year ended, and yet I *still* feel like I have too much.  It may sound like I'm a hoarder, but I'm honestly not, not like those people that keep every container and magazine.  Still, it's too much.

It's time to turn my house on it's end and just shake it.  I feel like stashing just my essentials and my very favorite tokens, and inviting people into my house just to take anything they see.  I don't want stuff any more.  I don't want full shelves and cupboards.  I don't want storage boxes.

I need a plan.  Maybe I'll do it by clearing one square foot at a time, systematically going through the whole house, but I will do it.  Dictionaries, markers, fabric stash, gadgets, stamp collection, toys, cookbooks, "skinny clothes", jewelry, Tupperware,  ..., I'm sick of it all.  I need to get rid of at least 80% of my possessions.  That's what I'm thinking, what I'm planning.  I'm going to need to have another yard sale or four.

After a long time of just dipping my toes in the pool, I really want to just dive into a minimalist lifestyle.

I've been thinking about stuff again.  I don't remember the point of origin for this train of thought, but I know at some point in the past couple of weeks it occurred to me that my husband and I live in a freaking mansion, relatively speaking.  I mean, it's just the two of us, no kids, and we have a two story house and a garage.  We have two bedrooms, two offices, and two full baths in addition to the usual living room, dining room and kitchen, and there's the bonus mud room too.  For the two of us.  Granted, the rooms are kind of small and boxy compared to the modern American home, but did I mention it's just the two of us living here?  We also have the only double-sized property lot on the block.  We have space.

The thing is, our space is full.  That's bothering me again, ...so much stuff.  I shouldn,t have to think this hard to find places to put things.  The problem is the amount of things I'm trying to place.

Yeah, there's another big purge coming on.  Last year's "365 Less Things" was nothing compared to the cold and calculating exodus of stuff I'm currently contemplating.

We're so lucky to have all this space, I feel like I'm not appreciating it enough when it's crammed with a million little things.  It's even hard to give my home the style I envision for it when I'm constantly having to move possessions from room to room just to momentarily appreciate the decorating we have done, not to mention all the pictures and art I have stock-piled where no one can see it yet because I haven't taken the time to see it's all properly framed and displayed in places of honor.

I've done some thinking, and I've given myself four categories of things I really and truly love, things I want in my life for the long haul: books, my art/craft tools, ties to loved ones (art/photos/memorabilia), and personal accessories (clothes, shoes, jewelry - things that boost the self-image).  There will be purging in those areas, but if I hesitate over something in one of those categories, I'm giving myself permission to hang on to it a while longer.  I may even assign an estimated date to some of those things with the thinking that if I haven't touched it by the given deadline, I should part with it.

Everything else, the movies and music and kitchen gadgets and gardening supplies and extra linens, even some of the crafting supplies for crafts that I'm not as fond of (such as stamping - bleh), any of all of that stuff that I'm not head-over-heels for is getting the heave-ho.

I'm really feeling driven to seriously honor all we are fortunate enough to have, but right now there's just too much stuff to allow any of it to stand out.  Last year's purge was ridiculously easy.  This next phase is going to be as tough as last year's was easy, but I've been thinking it over for a couple weeks now and I know it's time to finish this thing I started last year.

I'm reading a book about how stress affects your health and it's stressing me the hell out!  Seriously.  The first half of the book describes the human stress-response system and gives example after example of things that go wrong in people with prolonged levels of stress.  I'm looking at this list of very familiar symptoms and just getting more stressed!  I'm just about through the first half of the book though, and the second half is supposed be chock full of ways to deal with stress and all your whacked hormone levels.  I can't get there fast enough.

I have a cold again.  I thought it was just too much dust from cleaning on Tuesday, but when I stepped out of a long, hot shower yesterday and felt sore and beat up, I knew it was more than dust.  ...It's probably stress.  heh.  I need to finish this book!  But more immediately, I need to continue flooding my system with decaffeinated green tea and vitamins.  bleh.

Craig got the tree up last night.  It's still November and my tree is up!  *does cocky touch-down dance*  The rest of the greens and the lights will probably go up tonight (STILL NOVEMBER!) and then I'll spend a few days arranging ornaments, ribbons, beads and florals, getting everything *just so*.  This is a decorating record for us.  It's going to be sooooo nice to get all this up so much earlier than normal.

Gods!  I have three layers of clothing on, I'm sitting right in front of a heat vent, I'm drinking hot cider and I'm still shivering!

Been thinking... about stress and stuff and missing pieces and space ...and just about everything.  This year I actually managed to keep my new year's resolution.  I will be wrapping the year up having far exceeded my goal to have 365 less things in my possession.  It's cleared my head as well as my house.  I'm thinking next year is going to be about putting more back in my life.  I've cleaned up the clutter, now I'm more aware than ever of the things I want in those spaces.  I want more art, nature, music (playing not listening), education, ...  I've moved a lot of junk out of my life, now I need to work on moving the good stuff back in.  ...I don't know.  This is taking too long to write.  It made a lot more sense a little bit ago, but I think I feel a nap attack coming on right now.

Yeah, I've been getting rid of my "stuff" as fast as I can and it's been mostly great, but there is a darker side to this exercise.  I'm finding the stuff did fill some voids.  Without the clutter there distracting me, I'm getting kind of antsy.  This is a good thing, but still... argh.  Without the clutter to distract me, I can pursue the things I really want, the things that matter.  It's just that these aren't things I can acquire in an afternoon of shopping.  These are things I have to work for.  No instant gratification here.

I want more:

• time
• space
• order
• beauty
• inspiration
• creativity
• self-expression
• knowledge
• wisdom
• satisfaction
• productivity
• balance
• spirituality
• muscle tone
• practice
• fabulousness
• freedom
  
• ...

I need to work on some of that today, but I'm feeling very stuck and not knowing where to start.

I'm probably over-thinking again.

So far, all I've done today is one sink full of dishes, finished one book (about 25 pages) and started another (another 25 pages), did a major clean-up on my inbox, wrote a few lists, and bagged up a ton of stuff my Mom wanted from my cabinet clean-out earlier this week (would be about a -40 or so if I was still keeping count).  I have to clean cages yet, and would like to do a very wee bit of yard work.  Maybe read some more too.  Maybe rip some more CDs to load on my mp3 player.  Maybe find another cluttered corner to straighten up.  ...Anyhow, it's been a very low-key, relaxing day, and I intend for it to stay that way.

This clutter clearing thing gets stupidly exciting.  I have a bit more shredding to do today, and it feels like play time.  My eyes are constantly scanning for new areas of the house to tidy up.  Oh, and I've been watching "How Clean Is Your House" on BBC America because I love their tips for homemade cleaning products!  ...I'm sick, I tell ya.

Last mail delivery of the week came and went, and no lampwork supplies yet.  I cleared out shelf space for them already and everything.  *sigh*  As long as they come by my Big Birthday Weekend next Friday though, I won't complain.  Craig is taking Friday off and we're going to the opening day of the Fulton Co. Fair.  He's taking me out to dinner too, ...unless I eat too much fair food.  Otherwise, we have nothing planned for the 4-day weekend, and I want to play with a torch and come glass!

Craig gave me a shiny new tower system today (that required a desk mod.), but he's still tinkering with the system.  He did show me the audio improvements, mostly that I have access to all sorts of live streaming radio stations now.  *SQUEEEEE!*  Kind of makes me look forward to working on Monday even.  :)  Kind of.

All right, if I'm going to keep this day low-key, I have to clean cages now.

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui

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So just about a year ago, kitty glampants mentioned this book and gave it a really good review.  I've long been collecting clutter, and for almost just as long trying to get myself to part with it all, so I made a note that this book sounded like it might be helpful.  It wasn't high on my reading list, but if I ever came across a copy at the library or on sale somewhere, I planned to give it a go.

Last week someone had a copy to offer on bookmooch.com, so I finally snagged it.

WOW!  What a great motivator!

I suppose I should start by saying that I don't put much stock in feng shui.  I agree that our things become an extension of us, and as such, they affect our emotional and mental well being, but when it comes to the specifics of feng shui, using it like it's some sort of science with universal predictable cause and effect, well they lose me there.  So, feng shui, not my thing.

But this book isn't about the specifics of feng shui.  It's mostly just about how our stuff affects us, why we collect and what we can do to make paring down a little easier.  I've been in a major lifestyle simplification mindset for a while now, and I'd plateaued in my 365 things less plan, but I was still intending to get back to my work in that area.  This book gave me just the shot in the arm I needed.  I'm seeing so many more areas where I can cut back even more than I'd originally planned, and that excites me!  I was seeing so many possibilities for feeling even less burdened as I was reading, that between chapters, as much as I wanted to read on, I was putting the book down to indulge in mini clutter-clearing sessions because I just couldn't help myself.

Today I cleaned off my desk.  YAY, work surface!  I also cleaned out an old cabinet that could be useful space but which was just serving as long term storage for things I was afraid to part with.  Oh, the things I parted with!  I even put my shredder to use shredding old records that the niggling OCD voice in my head has long feared it would be dangerous to live without.  I laughed while I ran that stuff through the shredder because it just felt so good.  It's amazing how things we don't even think about for months can weigh on us constantly.  You don't realize that weight is there until it's gone.

In cleaning out that cabinet, I found some really cool things I forgot I had, some really useful things I forgot I had, a couple of things that I expect will fetch me at least $50 on eBay, and a ton of stuff that was just wasting space and weighing on my subconscious mind in so dark a corner of my brain that I forgot it was even a concern.  And perhaps the best thing, I now have a ton more storage space for my art supplies!  *joy*

It's really stupid how excited I am about digging through all the old boxes and files I've been putting off looking at for *years*.  I can't wait to be rid of all that stuff now, and I'm soooo ready to be rid of it.  I'm even really excited about going through all the boxes of my memorabilia.  I've always wanted/intended to put that stuff in albums and shadow boxes and whatnot, and I'm finally going to start that project.  I fully expect I'll actually wind up throwing most of it out now though.  I'll probably scan a lot of stuff and keep it digitally, but a lot of it will go.  How ridiculous is that that thought makes me almost giddy with relief?  *squee*

I love the bugs of August, the crickets and cicadas and all sorts of beetles and there are probably some frogs in that constant chorus also.  I love those sounds, the clicking and chirping and rattling.  I had a cricket the size of my thumb sneak into my mudroom last week to escape the rain.  I let him stay until the rain let up, then I gently picked him up and put him in a denser, drier part of my herb garden where he's more likely to find eats than he would in my house.  Crickets are good luck, you know.  I've always loved crickets.  I walk very slowly through my yard this time of year, gently brushing my foot over the grass with each step before putting my weight down, and with each step there are always at least 3-4 critters glad for the warning who jump to the side to let me pass.

I ordered my lampwork supplies yesterday.  I can't wait to get everything in, to be able to sit down and play with glass whenever the mood hits.  I just can't wait.  This is going to be a very good thing.  I've a strong suspicion this will be one of those memorable "I've found my way home" kind of life-affirming/altering things.

I can't believe we're past the middle of August already.  I'm not just making conversation here or lightly commenting on how time flies.  I seriously cannot wrap my brain around the fact that the summer is almost over.  Where... what... how?  All I can figure is that with my bout of depression in July, I was totally sleep-walking and time passed gently while I was unaware.  I don't really know how it all got by me, but I hope it slows down now that I am back in the moment, especially since we're coming up on my favorite half of the year.

I've stopped counting the flux of my possessions.  I know that I said I was going to try for double my goal after I hit the 365 things less point in early July, and I know that I should technically keep track just to make sure I'm still down those 365 by the end of the year, but I'm just not enjoying the count any more.  I learned what I intended to learn from the experiment and then some, and I'm still working on paring down even further, I've just started to dread keeping the tally, and life's too short and filled with too many other things to do for me to want to keep working on recording the movement of stuff after it's done what I'd hoped it would do.  That experiment was definitely a success though, and has changed the way I think and feel about so very many things.  I'm not exaggerating when I say it was a major life-changing thing.

After many years of angst and a sense of responsibility to something very dear to me, ohiogoth.org passed on to new ownership very quietly.  When I started my 365 less things goal, letting go of that domain and all that went with it was to count for a solid 25 things, weighting it appropriately for how tied to it I felt and how I often obsessed on it.  I never thought it would be such a quiet transition.  One day Craig told me, "Well, it's done.  I've archived everything and the domain is officially under new ownership now."  And that was that.  I nodded and breathed a small sigh and went back to whatever it was that had my attention.  It didn't hurt as badly as I feared it would, but it wasn't the cause for celebration I'd predicted either.  It was just time.  To think about it though, it does feel like I've cleaned out a whole huge room in my house with just that one change.

Handing off ohiogoth.org does make room for new things, things I've been planning for a while now but never felt I could give proper attention to.  In some ways I'm not terribly eager to fill that part of my life up right away, having just cleared it out, but in other ways I feel like this is the time to make my move, that clearing one domain project out of the way to make way for another has always been the plan.

And I have plans.  I have so much cooking right now, it's overwhelming when I stop to ask myself if this is really all possible.  I think the lesson there is that you stop for nothing.  If you don't question yourself, if you just keep pushing forward, the doubts can't catch up to you and you won't hear their fear-inducing whispers.

With my favorite tv shows of the summer season coming to an end, there's less tv to watch, and that's a good thing.  TV viewing is an indulgent behavior and not only horribly unproductive, but I do think even at it's most educational it's still very dangerously seductive and sedating.  I hate that I love it so much, even though I am terribly selective about what I watch.  I do look forward to having less ties to my tv as all my favorites wrap up for the season.  I need my time and energy for so many other things.

I was out with some friends Thursday night, so I recorded the SYTYCD finale and watched it Friday morning.  I love the way they did the show, dancing the favorite routines of the season one more time.  I've often wished I could save just my favorite routines to re-watch throughout the year, and this way I can, because they danced almost all of my favorites Thursday night.  The person I was pulling for the most also took it all, which was so nice.  I really love dance, and I really love that show.  I know reality shows are really looked down on, and for good reasons mostly, but SYTYCD is just such a great show.  I love that the judges aren't mean for the sake of ratings, that they give good and helpful feedback, that there's no focus on drama between contestants (if there even is any, seems like not), and that the whole focus of the show is really just on great dance.  I always really miss that show between seasons.

So, it's seriously August 18th???  Seriously?  I ought to get some stuff done then, eh?  Although I might take a few and finish the book I'm reading.  I've been averaging a book a week all year until this month.  That's ok though.  As much as I love reading, I really do need that time for other things these days.  ...So much to do.  Life is good.

When I talk about trying to pare down my possessions and now having almost 400 less things in my house, people ask if it's a very noticeable difference.  Honestly, it's only been a slightly noticeable difference ...until yesterday.

I got it in my head to clean the house a bit yesterday.  The heat wave broke, the weather was *wonderful* and I felt like some hard labor.  And for the first time in forever, it was easy to find a good place to put things.  There was no rearranging of junk to make room for more junk.  I just picked things up and put them away.  Gods, that was nice. 

It really inspired me to keep going and get to a state of even less.  Less really is more.

Getting rid of things and emptying out the house even a little has done a lot for me that I hadn't expected.  The latest revelation is this fresh motivation to make everything "work".  With less stuff weighing me down, I'm seeing new options both in decorating and functionality, with heavy focus on functionality.  I still have a long way to go in getting rid of the excess "stuff", but it is a lot easier to maintain a functional home when you can quickly access and put away the things you need.  Some day I hope to be able to dust a few shelves without doing the junk shuffle.  *sigh*  Some day.

I'm getting there though.  Bit by bit this place is finally shaping up into space that's comfortable, pretty *AND* functional.  It's exciting to imagine the possibilities, especially now that they seem attainable.

So, we called the sale and packed the car with the leftovers to donate somewhere.  I got a shower and then sat down with my notebook to tally up my notes on how many things I managed to purge this weekend for my 365 less spreadsheet.  Basically, I counted everything I had set out at the beginning of the sale, and subtracted the few things I brought back into the house at the end.  For the record, I did NOT count any of the things my husband put out for the sale.  This is my goal, so only things that I'm responsible for count.  I entered all the numbers into my spreadsheet and... (drum roll)...

I stand at a net loss of 375(!) personal possessions right now at the sixth month point in my goal.  I hit my goal in six months!

The game is not over though.  What matters is the number I have at the very end of the year.  I can't very well go filling my house back up with stuff at this point. 

I am thinking that since I managed to hit -365 in only half a year, I'm going to go ahead and shoot for double that: -730.  I don't know if I'll be able to hit that, but it's certainly something to shoot for, and as long as I keep going, my original goal is a sure thing at the very least.  Yeah, I'm going to shoot for -730 now.  As long as I maintain the -365 for the end of the year, I'll still be thrilled regardless.

It's really amazing to me to think of all we've purged, that quite a few things weren't even counted because they were Craig's and not mine, and yet I still feel like I have too much stuff.  How much crap we accumulate, and never really think twice about stock-piling!  And I do mean crap, because so far, parting with these things hasn't been painful at all.  I don't feel like it's that much a difference, but then I think back to the first of the year, the piles of stuff in the corners, the magazine collection, the books I wasn't going to read and clothes I no longer wore, ...and I realize that I have pared down a hell of a lot, and I sure as hell don't want to go back to the state of things at the beginning of this project.

All in all, this project is definitely a success, and I feel quite safe saying that with still six months still to go!