Lately I've been thinking a LOT about downsizing and decluttering. I've moved four times in the last four years, and last year, I watched/helped my dad sell the home we lived in for fifteen years. It's exhausting, and I've begun to look at all the "stuff" that fills the moving van in a new light.
I used to think that my goal, like everyone else's I knew, was to buy a big house, big enough for me and all my stuff, and my family's stuff, too. But now I get anxious just thinking about acquiring more stuff, moving that stuff to the next place, and sorting and storing it when I get there. By contrast, it feels good to think about having less stuff- less clutter, less storage, less worry about where to put it and how to use it.
Geoff and I live in a one bedroom apartment, which is great- most of the time. It's large enough that he can keep his desk in the living room without compromising living space, and I can keep
my craft area in a corner of the bedroom. We fantasize about a two bedroom apartment, where the second bedroom could be a shared "office," and even that seems like a tremendous luxury of space.
Sometimes I think about throwing everything out and starting all over in a new place, where we would only buy what we need and not more. But that would be a huge expense- and terribly difficult. I'm a long way from the
"bare-minimum 30-piece wardrobe," (or, unimaginably,
the ten-item wardrobe) although I know that reducing my closet footprint even further would feel great.
We're on our second thrift store donation pile (the previous pile was over three times this size). We're planning to move again in the next couple months, and in the coming weeks, you can expect to hear more about my decluttering frenzy- because I'm hoping to move as little stuff as possible.
In the meantime....how do you handle your clutter? Do you organize it, get rid of it, or leave it be? Leave a comment and let me know!
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