My Quest For Less

A while ago (2009) I wrote this post about my need for less at Christmas and now here I am 4 years later to begin sharing my journey to less-and this time I am getting serious.  I don't know if you would call it becoming a minimalist, or downsizing, dejunking, clearing clutter, super organizing or what exactly, but all I know is that I am on a mission to reduce.  Like I wrote in the first post 4 years ago I have always felt this underlying desire to have less but to try and embrace a lifestyle of less is totally out of character for me.  I mean I am a toilet paper tube hoarding, repurposing junkie.  I can hardly throw an empty box away without visions of "what it could become" flashing through my mind.  I am the daughter of a super frugal mother who saved every little thing and repurposed way before it was even cool.  This is the woman who has a box in her basement labeled, "shirts to cut up as rags."  I mean who needs to save shirts to cut as rags; there will always be shirts to cut up as rags.  But that is just the kind of woman she is.  I am the daughter, the niece and the granddaughter of a generation of wonderful people who were born and raised during the depression who never threw anything away and who never really had anything anyway.  And now here I am feeling like chucking blankets, sheets, pillows, spatulas, plates, tupperware etc and I am not sure where that is coming from and I am not sure how it will resonate with my family and those I love but the feeling is there.  I don't know what has suddenly brought on this desire with hurricane force, but I KNOW it is what I (my family too) need to do.  I don't know how it will be manifested in my life, because I have a lot of very sentimental things and I have a lot of very sentimental things that I hope to inherit and I have a major crafting passion which comes with a lot of stuff and I love thrift stores and yard sales and the idea of transforming junk into treasures.  So I don't know how it will all play out.  But I am going to do it.  I have a friend who's family is on a journey to becoming minimalists and I would read a few things she would post on Facebook and see stuff she was selling and felt so envious of her ability to get rid of unnecessary stuff.  Yes, that is right, envious of someone who has less than me.  I want that for us.  I want to figure out how to effectively hold onto the treasures, to weed out the unnecessary, to get rid of the clutter and to avoid buying unneeded things.  Everything was solidified in my mind last night when I watched my two girls splash in the newly formed puddle out front with a bucket of old measuring spoons.  They didn't need a bunch of stuff to be happy, they are so happy with little things.  This morning they have played for 2 hours straight with 4 spools of old thread I had bought at a yardsale and didn't have a use for.  They have unwound every last bit and have it spread everywhere and they are so happy.  And guess what, tonight after they go to sleep I will toss it in the garbage and feel free.  That tells me that it is time and it is okay to get rid of some stuff (toys being on the top of the list).  They are imaginative and creative and it is going to be okay.  I was exhausted last night after an afternoon of gathering and downsizing and I slept like a rock dreaming only of getting rid of more.  I was worried I might fizzle out today but the desire still burns strong and I downsized my wooden spoon collection by over half while the bacon cooked for breakfast.  I love how this feels.  This is going to be one wonderful and probably painful and frustrating journey.