over the past three weeks since we began this journey, i have noticed a change in my lifestyle. karen kingston helped me understand it.
in her book, clear your clutter with feng shui, karen writes this about clutter – “you know what it is like. you are walking down the street and you see that someone has thoughtlessly thrown an empty cigarette packet in the corner near the roadside. the next day you walk past the same spot, and the empty pack has been joined by a few more items of trash. before long it becomes a full-blown garbage dump. clutter accumulates the same way in your house. it starts with a bit and then it slowly, insidously, grows and grows.”
clutter attracts clutter. it just takes one piece of junk mail, one article of clothing left on a chair, or one receipt not filed properly to get the clutter momentum started.
what i have found over the last three weeks is that the opposite is also true. when a surface is left clean, that one piece of clutter seems out of place and calls you to put it away. since i minimalized my office and removed all the clutter, i can’t stand the idea of leaving one piece of paper sitting on my desk – and so i put it away. since i minimalized my wardrobe, i can’t stand the idea of leaving one shirt laying on the floor – and so i throw it down to the laundry. since we minimalized the living room, i can’t stand the idea of leaving my shoes in the corner or a book on the table - and so i put them where they go right away.
perhaps, i should have learned to just put things away years ago when i turned 20, 25, or 30. but for me another benefit of minimalism is that it leads to even more minimalism. and that’s a good change in my lifestyle – just ask my wife.
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I love that the more we part with, the more we want to part with. We are realizing how little we really need.The more we let go of our material possesions, the happier out family is becoming. Why have bulky electric and non electric food choppers, and proccessors when all you need is a cutting board, grater and a knife!
I have a minimalization day about every 3 or 4 months. I turn off all of the distractions (tv, internet, telephone), put on some good music, and tackle 1 room or sometimes just 1 box. I always find something that I just had to keep the last time I looked in this area that I no longer feel so attached to and find it a new home in someone else’s house. I always feel better afterward and, so far, I haven’t regretted getting rid of anything. Becoming minimal is addictive in a good way.
Two days ago I decided I really “should” declutter a box of “memories” (I have quite a few) and I told myself, that even “a little” was better than not doing it at all… The TWO boxes decluttered have now become ONLY ONE…
Imagine what that could have been like if I had even put some effort into it! LOL!
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