Simplify, simplify. ~ Thoreau

[Diva]

I am coming back to this thread because I needed to.

A couple of months ago, I had a significant event in my life which has changed me. It has not been a pleasant change. I have 3 very dear friends who tell me I am being too hard on myself, but it really pisses me off that it has changed me and my outlook on many things. I am struggling to find a way to cope and I keep coming back to a more minimalistic lifestyle.

So I turned to Google and found >> THIS <<

It is helping me get rid of a lot of clutter....and not just the physical stuff, either.

All I know is that SOMEthing has to change in me. I have placed too much importance on things and people and events and less on peace and calm, my spirit's survival and the earth itself.

[Gemme]

Yesterday and today have been and are being devoted to this theme. It's a long road but we're getting there.

[girl_dee]

Diva I love the link you posted, especially the cookbook!

for me, I lost material things in a Katrina. I lost all the things I thought I "Could not live without";

my Disney salt and pepper shakers
Boat (that was a hard one)
ceramic knick knack thing that lived by the door for 10 years
rock collection
CD's
softball gear
etc....



Of course I could live without them! I can't tell you how good it feels not really feeling connected to *things* anymore. I still have sentimental items that I hold close but the unimportant clutter is gone and I realized the memories are never lost.

What I hold dear now are people, and the memory of the one special friend that I lost in the storm, not knick knacks. The memory of a City I loved before the storm changed everything. The what nots just don't matter anymore. Simplifying feels great!

[Gráinne]

I'm glad I found this thread. Ever since I got back from Washington, I've been thinking about how much clutter is in my life-not just stuff, but mental habits and wrong beliefs just taking up rent space. I'm really feeling a need not only to clean out my house, but to clean out my inner house, too. Too much spiritual, mental and physical clutter (ie. fat) here.

Getting rid of things and donating stuff is a tangible way to do it . That makes me feel good.

[girl_dee]

Freecycle is a great resource to clean out the clutter too!

It's been proven that cleaning out a closet is emotionally cleansing!

[DamselFly]

when i moved, i left behind most of my "stuff". the only things i brought w/me are some clothes, my teapots, my Taoist/Buddhist books (even though i can't read them at this time), and my altar. having little stuff gives a sense of freedom...as Lao-Tzu said,
to have little is to possess.
to have much is be perplexed.
a good blog to go to for writings on minimalism is zenhabits. i have it on my igoogle page. once at the end of every season, i do a "housecleaning" and donate the clothes i haven't worn that season. i figure if summer has gone by and i haven't worn something, i probably won't wear it next summer and don't need it. my objective is to get a week's worth of clothing for each season. that's it. always feminine, of course.
DamselFly

[Kelt]

This little article landed in my inbox today, and I thought this might be a good place for it. I consider myself to be a moderate minimalist but this made me realize that I still need to organize...hmm..or not, a couple of areas in my home.

Organizing is often well-planned hoarding

http://theminimalists.com/about/

We need to start thinking of organizing as a dirty word. It is, in fact, a sneaky little profanity—a pernicious little booger—who keeps us from simplifying our lives.

Our televisions would have us believe that there’s a battle being fought on the consumption continuum, a battle between the organizers and the hoarders. And from our couches it’s hard to see who’s winning.

We’d like to posit to you, however, that these two sides are working together, colluding to achieve the same thing: the accumulation of more stuff. One side—the hoarders—does so overtly, leaving everything out in the open, making them easy targets to sneer at. But the other side—the sneaky organizers—are more covert, more systematic, more devious when it comes to the accumulation of stuff. Ultimately, though, organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding.

Sure, both sides go about their hoarding differently, but the end result is not appreciably different. Whether our homes are strewn with wall-to-wall material possessions or we have a complex ordinal item-dispersal system, color-coded and alphabetized, we’re still not dealing with the real problem.

No matter how organized we are, we must continue to care for the stuff we organize, cleaning and sorting our methodically structured belongings. When we get rid of the superfluous stuff, however, we can focus on life’s more important aspects. Said another way: We can spend the day focusing on our health, on our relationships, on pursuing what we’re passionate about. Or we could, of course, reorganize our basement again.

Once the excess stuff is out of the way, staying organized is much easier anyway.

[socialjustice_fsu]

Thank you for the link and the synopsis of the article. I have been perplexed from time to time about this 'opposing' shift of view. Personally, I tend to lean more toward having what I need with a dash of objects that fill my senses, my wants. Following a move from a large home to a two bedroom apartment I took note at how much lighter I felt. My energy was not tempered down with stuff. Albeit, I had to take a long, skeptical look at the objects that stayed with me. I was taken aback by the amount of stuff I produced for a huge (successful) estate sale prior to my move. It was then I felt as if I was an organized hoarder. In the past I could spend hours upon days sorting, filing, and packing in just the right decorative box that, yes, I had spent a number of hours shopping for...only to discover there were some major issues I had going on in my life that I simply could ignore by diving into the perpetual move of organizing a box, drawer, closet. Now that I have been in my apartment a couple of years with much less stuff and a lot more chi I feel lighter, not so burdened with the organizing and the upkeep of such a system. I have also discovered that life really does pass one by rather they overtly or covertly hoard. Call it what you will...but I know now that when I jump into that "I need to revise, re-do, reorganize mode" - I just might need to take a look at what I am avoiding and find a healthy means to cope with it.

[cinnamongrrl]

Let me start by saying I do prefer organization...i strive for it. With teenagers...its not always feasible. One thing i HAVE learned... its SO important to have a place for things. Whenever I'm shopping at thrift stores, I always look for baskets, containers and totes. If i cant find an immediate need for it then my girls typically do.

We are getting ready to move, so it's a perfect time to declutter our lives. I went through my closet and have gotten rid of things that dont fit, I dont like or wear etc. I went through papers and whatnot and recycled a whole lot of stuff that way too.

In closing.....I can see where y'all are coming from...but theres no way Im getting rid of my books! :P

[Kelt]

Digital clutter

Digital clutter is one of the last "clearing out" areas I have to deal with. Also one of the most insidious. It's one of those out of sight out of mind things for me. It's still kind of crazy making though. I can't really even figure out how bad it has gotten. Especially with all of the cloud storage available for free. With auto save set up, I know where it goes to live, can search to find whatever I want, and it's all safe and sound even it the house burns down.

Even so, it feels like I have a Fibber McGee closet somewhere and one day it will crash down and bury me.




The joy of digital photography. Now, without the cost of film or developing I am free to take as many shots as I want. I can try different angles, lighting and focal distances to my hearts content.

The downside of digital photography; see above.

My photo 'organizing' software has a really handy way of grouping things by date and time so that like items tend to stay together. You can then go further and make specific types of albums and things, use keywords, rate them, map them, all kinds of interesting things when you get around to it. Until then, they are clumped in time chunks.

Well, about a year or two ago I started noticing that when I would go to look for a specific picture it would take a while to find it, but eventually I would. I figured I would get around to organizing them 'someday'. But, the whole out of sight, out of mind thing was working on me. Well, I'm putting my foot down and going to start on this. Of course it has taken a couple of days to bone up on how to best do this for the best outcome, and how best to use the tools at hand, batch sorting, that kind of thing. Sharpen the saw before cutting down the tree.

The irrefutable conclusion I have come to is that in one way or another this will involve individual attention to each separate photo in some way. Either delete (a lot of them), move, re-catagorize, name, etc. So, okay, open up the big fake box in the sky and look.

Seven years worth. Slightly over 9,000 images.

See you in about a year.

Then I can start on documents, email archives………….

[chakra]

Great Thread!!

I feel as though I am in an ongoing process of decluttering. I am perpetually finding things to take to the Salvation Army and to the shelter here in town. I have consciously ensure for every one thing I bring into my house, three things must leave. Despite that, I still own a lot.

I was laying in bed last night thinking of what my kids would want when I die. I think in those terms now. I was in a serious car accident that has made me completely re-evaluate EVERYTHING. I don't want to own anything. I no longer feel attached to life. Not in a "I am going to kill myself" way, not at all. But, when I came home from the hospital and looked around my house I wondered why on earth I own so much useless crap. And how did I ever attach any value to any of that 'junk'. So, the painful process of decluttering my life began.

I gave away my camera. If I can't remember it, who cares.
I gave away my cookbooks. If I can't make it, I can look it up on line.
I gave away my all my fiction books. I want to live here, now, not escape it.
I gave away all the clothes I had not worn in six months (except my super warm coat cause -40 and colder is not uncommon where I live)
I gave away all my china.
And the list goes on. I feel lighter when things leave my house.

What is important. That is the question I ask myself, truly ask myself, every day now.

Life is a blessing. My monetary holdovers, not so much.

[Greco]

Well, I am down to the most essential...my wife's kitchen things, my books, and things I use for creative "work"...all "things" I enjoy, love, find beautiful.

To say that life is a gift doesn't come close for me, and I am grateful beyond words to live with simplicity, economy, beauty (essential for me)...moving once again soon...and will keep it minimal, spacious, uncluttered, comfortable.

Greco

[tygr_grrl]

find myself moving and that tends to help me lighten my load. clothes that haven't been worn in over a year (or dont fit), long ignored household gadgets....they all get rounded up and bagged to Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Also, nothing quite like coming across a half unpacked box from the last time I moved. Hmmm....a couple cd-rom backups of scanned old photos (keeping after I download to my gmail), a SANDisk memory card to a LONG dead digital camera, a place mat, a picture of my mom (oops, what's that doing in there?), some random hardware from something requiring assembling, a spool of red and green holiday ribbon, an unsent card and a box of straight pins that opened up and needles everywhere.

[Sweet Bliss]

I am surprised that this thread has only two pages. I was looking forward to spending hours learning new pearls of wisdom.

Lol, then I laughed at myself, why spend hours avoiding the simple life I keep saying I want?

Instead of goofing off online why am I not filling bags with donations? Getting prepared for the next phase of my adventure. Hello ooo..... snap out of it....

Thanks y'all.

[Blaze]

Simplify, simplify,


The Purge:
Be it things of the past, present, it's a cleansing. Material or emotional. Trying to become the minimalist that I really am.


To give it to someone else who needs it more, or to eject it out of your life completely, it's end result is ridding yourself of things that are not as important as you once thought them to be...


For me. I was once told that I have expensive taste.
I see that to be true, only because I can't see wasting money on something that will break the first time I use it. But.. at my own dismay, there are many things that I spend money on that are not worth a damn and I should have got the bargain deal.


I am not a name brand kind of person, mostly due to be the last born and getting hand me downs, but mostly because in the work field. I’ve come to realize that the bigger the brand, the less attention is made to quality and more mind set on quantity.


A few years ago, I made my own promise to myself that for every piece of clothing I donate I will only then replace it. (unless it was a special occasion) but I still ended up donating after the fact.


For my Purge.
I have taken many items that I once thought important to a friend, that will dispense them to the less fortunate.

1. 5 - new tee shirts
   4 – shorts hardly used
   smokey colored glassware
   6 - Polo shirts
   14 – Dress Shirts. I don't need, I don't go out and need not impress anyone
   7 – bubble bath soaps bottles
   Guitar and ukulele I am still debating about, but I don't need them.
   house slippers, cowboy boots, new sneakers, hats
   hygiene items that I don't use because I don't have periods anymore
   A tea maker and tea because I don't really drink tea unless in the mood
   some hanging decorations and other little trinkets
   and a new bed that I actually don't like. I prefer firmer. As it's not being used anyway.
   
   Fishing gear, I needed to downsize.

That's just for starters. I have other items that I need to retrieve, that I will need to go through later and decide what I keep and what can be someone else treasures

[Jesse]

I am going through my entire house, literally touching every single thing in it to see if I want to keep it, sell it, give it or toss it. I'll be back...

[Sweet Bliss]

Humm. Wonder if I can get down to a back pack?

[Blaze]

I'm still finding things to purge.... at the moment there mostly emotional and spiritual dumps...But i gave towels and a night stand, kitchen items given to me that I can't use, so again.. A baker's rack that needs repair, and stools. Thank goodness they will be appreciated...

[Kelt]

Just ran across a great tip for sorting clothes. I know it's good because it makes me shudder to think of actually doing it.

When sorting, unless you wear it all the time, make yourself wear it for one day. That should be a good "decider", I could get rid of a lot just at the idea.

[Sweet Bliss]

Originally Posted by Jesse

I am going through my entire house, literally touching every single thing in it to see if I want to keep it, sell it, give it or toss it. I'll be back...

How is this going for you Jesse?? I'm faltering.