Time Flies

Wow! I started thinking this way all the way back in 2013, and yet, I'm just now really getting into it and understanding it. (It being minimalism).It's crazy how an idea can take hold of us and yet take so long for us to really implement and get it. I re-read my "Beginning" post and realize that many of the same thoughts and same reasons still hold true for me today in my path of minimizing.

But, some things have changed. Primarily the location in which we store our stuff, and hopefully a couple years has given me a more mature perspective.

We moved in 2014 into a new house and left the old house that was beginning to make me feel defeated; granted I'm not sure it was completely the house, but other things happening in life - though I'm sure the house wasn't helping because the location made my allergies crazy.

I'd like to say that we remedied my house concerns completely and moved into one of those crazy tiny houses, but that is not the case. We still have more room than we need, but that's okay, sometimes to be in the location you want you can only go so small. We still have three bedrooms, and gained a half bath, a partially finished basement and a separate office space. But it is more updated and I don't feel like we have the same amount of work, especially since our yard is smaller.

The idea of minimalism stayed with me through and after our move though. I realize looking back that it would have been beneficial to do this before our move. Only by the luck of the moving company screwing up did we manage to get all of our items moved. They were supposed to send a crew that could move the baby grand and didn't. So almost everything but the piano went into that large moving truck. Unfortunately once the first truck was full we still had a little pile left. Luckily since they had to send another truck and crew for the piano we were able to get the rest. I'm pretty sure we still had a car full too.

Looking back, that is really sad to me. We are two people. Why in the world did we/do we need that much stuff? It's so easy to bring stuff in and yet so hard to let it go. (Think about it, even the stupid little free things you receive are often hard to get rid of because you don't want to be wasteful, even though you never asked for the item).

With a job change I've had a little more time to be home  to think about and tackle our "stuff." At first I found myself rearranging and "organizing." I thought I really loved to organize but I realize it just gets messy again, so like the house projects at the previous house, I feel like I never get anywhere. But I'd get so stressed out and frustrated when I thought of letting anything go. I couldn't truly wrap my mindset around it, so I'd just rearrange things.

After talking to a good friend who is on the path of minimalism and reading a book she suggested by The Minimalists, I've finally got the motivation to give it a good try. I'm finally getting the change of mindset I need to move beyond the "stuff."

So, I'm picking up this blog again to detail my progress, offer up my thoughts, offer up my struggles and holdups, and show my successes to hopefully help someone else that is on the verge and just needs a push for a mindset change.

Now, honestly, I have several blogs, and I'm not great at consistently publishing and keeping up with them, so don't expect extremely consistent posts, or you'll just be disappointed - and I don't want that. However, when I get through a project or inspiration hits I will put it right here and hopefully it will help you out. And if you want to talk about what being a minimalist means, get in touch with me and I'll probably just direct you to the book my friend recommended to me. : )