1. Books
Don’t freak out. I’m all about books. Really, I love them. Until I discovered Kindle and Audible, I was a library girl. I couldn’t afford my reading habit if I wanted to. Even so, I managed to collect a ridiculous amount of books. On the journey to tiny, minimalistic living – these clunky things just didn’t make the cut. Novels, best sellers, paperbacks, trashy beach reads, classics, chic-lit, biographies, self-help gospel, many with yard sale .50 stickers still clinging to the covers. We kept the cherished few we knew we would re-read, packed away the children’s books that would entertain P in a year’s time, and donated the rest. Those books were just another thing to dust, and now they are making someone happy! Or they are still collecting dust on a shady wire rack at Goodwill – I don’t care…at least I’m not dusting them.
2. Sheets
How many sets of mismatched, poorly folded sheets can fit into a linen closet – while still, just barely allowing the door to close? I don’t know, but that’s how many we had. If you have guests regularly, keep ONE matching extra set around. But seriously, donate the rest. Especially if they are hand me downs from your mother circa 1998. Nobody staying with you wants any part of that. Unless you are an avid living room sheet-fort builder, let it go.
3. Dishes
I know I am a hoarder, and I cannot judge the cupboards of America by my own stockpiling tendencies. But I’ve been doing some recon, and plenty of households have too many of these damn things piled up. Matching dishes are nice, but not everyone has them. You still don’t need more than 6-8 place settings depending on the size of your family and how often you entertain. I’ve found that we can live with a lot less than that. Other common dishes you have too many of: Tupperware (I bet you can’t find all of your lids!), glasses, awkward specialty utensils you got for your wedding that you don’t know how to use, souvenir cups, travel mugs, BBQ tools. Do your best, and remember you’re not Emeril Lagasse.
4. Pens
Too much of our lives are spent searching for a pen. Sit down with a pad and try them all out to see what’s worth saving and what’s dried up. If you have a small child, you can recruit them to help and then tell Pinterest it was developmental and stimulating and something about fine motor skills. Unless you sign contracts all day, or work as a teller at a drive-through bank – you seriously don’t need 270 of these things.
5. Toiletries
Ladies, I want to share something
life changing with you: Your life will be better if you actually use your nice bath salts. Seriously. Like in the bath, and not in the zombie face-eating way. This sounds so trivial, but it’s really not. 3 months into this big adventure, when we knew we were heading to the tiny house but still living in the big house, I started using up all of my gifted soaps and salts. I had been saving them for a rainy day or special occasion, but they just took up space. Indulging felt like a treat, out of the ordinary, and amazing. You could read this like a metaphor for living in the moment and enjoying each day. Or you could just go soak your feet.
6. Clothes
I have too many thoughts on this subject. Certainly enough to warrant a separate blog post…and possibly an entire chapter of my mid-life memoirs… so, I’ll keep it simple. If it is ugly, uncomfortable, out of style, or makes you feel too fat-tall-skinny-short-cheap-pregnant-matronly-frumpy-weird, just get rid of it. Donate it.
7. Décor
Let me lead you into an epiphany…Have you ever realized: every time you buy a cute knickknack at Homegoods, or more throw pillows at Target, you don’t get rid of something in your house? Every time you come home with shopping bags containing goods that you don’t consume, your home is filling up with inanimate objects that take your space don’t pay rent. If you don’t use it, or love it – leave it. If it isn’t making you happy or making you money, TOSS THAT CRAP! Give it to someone who needs it, or wants it, or will take it away just so you don’t have to dust it anymore. Sidebar: If you have one of those big Live Laugh Love multi-photo frame wall hangings, you can go ahead and get rid of that too. I think we’re all done with those.
8. Sentimental items
Before you protest – I haven’t become some anti-nostalgia minimalist Nazi with a heart of stone. I know everyone needs a treasure box. Mementos are the sweet, amusing little things that your children will mock you for saving when they are half-way grown and start eye-rolling…and they will thank you for saving when they are grown, have children and can say “This is grandma’s old ….. and mommy’s old…..” But we don’t need to save everything. Scan in children’s artwork that isn’t sentimental enough to save. Upload it to the cloud, save it to a flash drive, consolidate. Think you will miss that crinkly coloring book portrait of Cinderella stained with transparent Pre-K watercolors? Not likely.
9. Somedays
“But, we might need this someday.” was easily the most overused phrase during our packing & purging experience. And, OK – it was mostly by me. I am a world-class junking queen, brought up on a steady diet of spray paint and DIY. I never said no to a yard sale… or a flea market, or a thrift store. Or spending loads of money on projects that sat in my garage like the loading dock of Goodwill Donation. You can make a lot of excuses to keep something around and
we might need this, and when we do, I don’t want to spend money on it is a really good one. Think about what else it is that you need: space in your closet, room in your life, freedom from clutter, less dusting, clean rooms, and organization, plenty of storage instead of not enough. SO: Sell what you might need someday. Put that money away, accruing interest in a tidy little space-saving savings account. (if it doesn’t pay you, get rid of it – now we are making money!) Have a little faith, and your somedays will be covered.
10. Stresses
And, we’re going to wrap it up with a good little life lesson. The 10th thing you probably have too much of:
stress. Obviously! And I can’t even tell you the best way to eliminate it. There’s already a multi-billion dollar industry devoted to teaching you just that. I
can tell you what works for me. Downsizing has changed my perspective on things, where I spend my money, how I spend my time. So, are you contributing to your stress or your serenity? Hmm.
Well, the more money I made, the more I spent on things.
The more I spent on things,
the more I spent on a house to fit all the things,
on a storage unit to fit all the things,
on things to fix the house that fit the things,
on more things to organize all the things,
on more things to decorate the things that organized the things because they were generally ugly things,
on things to distract myself from the stressful build-up of things all around me,
on an escape from all of my things…
More things, more things, more things.
Less stress = less things.
Boom. Your problems are solved. Go get rid of something.
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/92134589@N00/4426390064"></a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>
