Friday, February 18, 2011

A Single Step


When you were a kid….maybe 5 years old….. you looked forward through your mind to what your life would be like when you turned 25, what did you see? I saw myself with a PhD and a professorial position teaching history or literature while I wrote novels and did book tours on the side. I saw a nice house with nice things and a nice husband who loved me and thought I was the greatest thing since cable tv.

Well, I just turned 28….and I have a brilliant and talented husband who thinks I’m tops and a life that’s not exactly as planned, but it’s pretty great anyway. I have the nice house, but my house, like my life, is filled with too many things and not enough places to put them. These things make it hard to make changes or repairs to the house and I generally feel we could stand to cut down.

Webster's defines minimalism as “a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme sparseness and simplicity.” Everyone knows how to be a minimalist, but has forgotten with the accumulation of stuff. Think back to your dorm or first apartment. When you have nothing, you can see what’s really important.

Simplicity is what I’m after. That’s where this blog and you the reader comes in. This is my open and public journey to go from stuffy and cluttered to streamline and easy. I will be using The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay (miss minimalist) as my guiding text in this journey. Let’s get started.

2 comments:

  1. I wish you much happy decluttering of the unnecessary in the days ahead. It feels great once you get started.

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  2. Thank you, Anne, for your encouragement :)

    ReplyDelete