Living Room – Bailey will go here when I find time to move it in. 
9/2/2015

I don’t know why but since I’ve come back to the blog the caption on my pictures align to the left.  I can’t figure out how to get it to align in the center.  If you know… please let me know.

While looking for a new place to live, someone made a comment that we had a lot of stuff so we needed to find a place as big as our old place.  This struck a chord in me.  How much of this stuff do we need?  How much of it do we move from house to house because we haven’t taken the time to go through and get rid of it?  That’s when I decided that the next time we move, we’re moving with less.  I thought of getting rid of things during the move and if I found things that I could get rid of, I did so.  However, getting rid of stuff can be an emotional thing so I moved the hard stuff.  I was already a mental mess during the moving process that the thought of adding another emotional rollercoaster like getting rid of baggage was unthinkable.  So I’m doing it now, slowly, for sure – but a process I’m committed to.

I decided to start with the easy stuff like clothing. I donated the items that don’t fit, the ones that fit but I never wear because I don’t like how I feel in them, and the ones that I wear but hate wearing.  I even got rid of the free t-shirts we get and used to keep just cuz it’s free.  You get the idea.  I have a lot of room in my drawers and closet now.  I think the next thing to get rid of are my shoes that are way too old.  They are just out of fashion and I’ll never (really I shouldn’t ever) wear them again.

I thought I’d get rid of something every day but that’s just too much of a commitment.  As I unpack stuff I’ve been throwing things away.  But now I’m at a standstill, the boxes are in the garage hidden away.  It’s difficult to go in there and unpack stuff because I’m not sure where I want to put things.  I guess I just have to do it.

I’ve decided to track what I’ve thrown away when.  Not so much to see how I feel when I throw it away but to make sure I’m throwing things away regularly.  I think that it will be easy for me to throw away things I’m not attached to.  But once those are all gone, what will I throw away?  I don’t know but if I track myself doing it – then I’ll feel accountable to really do it.  Just like counting the fabric that comes in and out of my stash.  🙂   btw, I’m not throwing away fabric, or quilty stuff in general, or craft stuff, or scrapbooking stuff… If anything, I would by a house just to keep all of those things if I could.  And if a great deal on a sewing machine happens along, well – I’ll happily find a home for it.  🙂

Join me on my journey of simplifying my life from all the junk I have accumulated.

~Melanie