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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

My Minimalism Journey


                                           {Lightbulb}

Before I begin, let me exclaim..."loightboulb!"  ...despicable me anyone? This is kind of the beginning of my journey, and yet kind of not since our ideas and journeys are always changing. This was the beginning of where I discovered minimalism and began to put it into practice.

Here you'll find what I decluttered and the emotions and ideas I was discovering at the time. This is the nitty gritty.

You'll also notice I did a few areas several times ex the kitchen I probably went through like 5 times and just didn't write down every time! Once you start getting rid of stuff it's so easy to keep getting rid of more!!!


July 1st
purged baby girl clothes, closet, kitchen, linens

July 2nd
decluttered bedroom
sold a floor rug

July 3rd
Bookcase cleaned out and taken downstairs to organize fabric instead of bins
Declutter living room
Basement boxes – décor, bathroom

July 4th
Decluttered Books (down to 42!), Fabric, Yarn.
Looking forward to yardsale. After realizing how much I've taken down to the basement to declutter upstairs it'll be nice to declutter downstairs too.
Enjoying new perspective on minimalism, simplicity and anti-consumerism.

July 9th
Reorganized everything at back entrance got rid of décor table and all decorations on it. Amazing how many decorations I have that I really don't care about. I kept a nice pitcher I had painted.
Declutter: necklaces (only kept a few organized by season and thin pretty ones)

July 10th Love Revolution – Joyce Meyer
God, how can you stand to see all that goes on in the world and do nothing.
“I work through people, I am waiting for my people to rise up and do something.”

Why don't I do more? Selfishness, Self-Focus, Self – Centered. To Do Lists.
Begin to think of what you can do.
Have people over more.
Who? Make a list.
Real love is costly: Investment of time, money, effort or possessions.
You can bring joy to the world by having a consistently Godly attitude.
I am going to go out into the world today and spice things up :)
What have I done today to make someone elses life better?
Be focused and clear in your endeavour to lift the lives of others.
Worship the Lord with your whole life.

July 13th
Sold 29 Records

July 14th
I'm finding decluttering/minimalism very addicting and having empty drawers intriguing.
I thought finding one thing a day to get rid of would be difficult but I'm currently at 10 + things a day. Seriously considering cancelling tv and internet.

July 15th 2012
Still finding tons to get rid of – decluttering what I've already been through!
My yard sale pile is nearly insane. I've thrown out so much too!
I feel like we have so much more room and it's easier to breathe.
I'm apalled at how much JUNK I was keeping, cleaning and organizing.

July 18th
I used to equate financial freedom with the power to buy anything I wanted, I now see it's the freedom to not buy anything where you find true happiness.

July 19th
Sold Barbies, kept 3 from my childhood. I have one boy and one on the way so definitely won't be needing all those Barbies any time soon. 
Shoes and clothes again
Kitchen Cupboards again, got rid of unsures.
I keep finding TONS to get rid of.
Worried I'll find a lot more after the yardsale.
Still want to go through baby items and PURGE!
I have 2 boxes of 3-6 month boys clothes :P
Made $35 already – purse and barbies
Down to 19 pairs of shoes

July 20th
Went through ALL baby clothes and cut down to about 10 short sleeve shirts, 5 long sleeve shirts, 2 dressy long sleeve, 2 dressy short sleeve, 10 pair pants including jeans, and a few sweaters. (0-3 months and 3-6 months I left a little more for accidents!) So got rid of over half of what I had.
Also went through all my regular size clothes (I'm pregnant right now) and got rid of 2 garbage bags full.
My system: I pulled out all the clothes of a size and put them in the different categories (ex long sleeve shirts) and then went through each category and pulled out my favorites. This always ended up being the perfect number to keep!

July 21st
FAMILY YARD SALE DAY! Made $350
plus made $85 this week selling online
Donated all leftovers to Value Village (I shop at our local second hand store and didn't want to see my items calling to me again!)
Brought home 6 items from yard sale that weren't mine, they all had places to go and I got rid of more than that when I got home.
I'm very grateful that my sister in law and cousin were doing cash so I didn't know how cheap they were selling my stuff for! That's the most painful part, seeing things go one at a time for cheap :(

July 22nd
Brought home some items that didn't sell at yard sale to sell online. If not gone in 2 weeks will post them for free to save a trip to second hand store :)

July 23rd
Still feeling exhausted after the yard sale. Finding lots more to get rid of but not going to do any major purging in awhile. Time for a break!
I'm glad I'm not feeling very guilty about getting rid of stuff as I am a very frugal shopper so most of the things I bought I could sell for more or at least not lose money on. Thrift stores are my downfall. But I'm not eager to bring in more stuff after all the work I've gone through to get rid of it.

July 25th
I know that things will change, ideas, schedules, likes, but one thing I know for sure...I will  never again have this much stuff in my house!!  I am done with it. And finding it strange that I don't miss anything I got rid of.

July 26th
Selling a few more of my items online. Made $522 to date from clutter! So Exciting! I was able to buy some items we needed for baby.
Still finding more to get rid of. Completely reorganized the kitchen cupboards to make sense (food was everywhere)
Cancelled the upcoming craft fair since it's too close to my due date.
Finding it uncomfortable to not have to keep crocheting endlessly. Started cross stitch for new baby's birth record.
Need to learn how to slow down. And enjoy life.

July 27th
Psalm 86
Hear oh Lord and answer me for I am poor and needy. Guard my life for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts you. 

I'm loving seeing the 'empty' basement and not taking hours to clean up the house.
Household management seems...manageable.
Got a usb stick to hold all my pics and docs...too small. Need to buy a big hard drive to keep all music, movies and pics and docs. Will be so nice to get rid of all our dvds and just have everything available to watch and listen to on the xbox.

July 28th
Birthday party for the Little Man. Decluttered gift bags. Organized 2T clothes. Started organizing digital photos.

July 29th
Sold desk!

July 30th
Learn to Single Task! Stop, refocus and pick 1 thing to do instead of trying to do everything at once. Specifically at meal times. When the Little Man is in his highchair eating quietly I like to throw in the laundry, sweep the floor and tidy up but then I miss eating with him :( I would rather focus on sitting and eating and not getting out of my chair. So much harder than it sounds.
Organized scrapbooking and keepsakes. Bought small bookcase for office supplies and printer. 

July 31st
Feel like I'm getting too disciplined to organize and need to slow down and enjoy life since that is the major reason to do all of this in the first place.
Most of the work is taking pictures and listing everything online. This takes a lot of effort to do/organize. It would be so much easier to throw everything in a donate bin and be done with it but we could really use the extra money and it would seem like such a waste. But it is like having a part time job.
Wow! Just added the total from decluttering and surprised that we're at $590 already! That's crazy. It kind of seems like we're moving the house is so clean and so easy to clean.
I'm really sick of the decluttering 'clutter' lying around though. Everything I've decluttered is in the laundry room on my sewing desk which makes it look like such chaos in there! I'm not sure if/when I'll stop selling things. I think I'll give everything 1 week to sell and then donate it. And maybe pick a dollar amount to sell, under to donate. $10? I think that would be good. Small clutter takes up so much room and hardly seems worth the effort.
Although I've only decided to more drastically minimize lately, the goals I made in January are still perfectly in line with my mission today. It's like I just couldn't picture the end result like I can now. 
Cleaned the oven. Organized Pet Supplies. Craft Stuff. Inside oven drawer.




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