Minimalism

I have been wanting to become a minimalist for years. The idea of having a clean and uncluttered home is so appealing to me. You see it magazine layouts, clear coffee tables, a dining room table with only a bowl of fruit on top. But alas, that lifestyle was destined for someone elses life and not mine for I married a collector of things, comics, figures, anything Star Wars, elephants. I love my husband dearly, it’s the crap slowly filling our tiny house that I can do without. And now our son is following in his father’s footsteps. Oh joy. This is not to say that I don’t have my faults as well. I love cookbooks and I also love the elephants we have collected throughout our marriage, but I think I have come to a point in my life where the stuff we own is drowning me. I need space. I need to find that item I placed down a week ago that has now completely disappeared. I hate that. I also hate that I seem to be responsible for all of the items my family has placed down and can now not seem to find.

Aww, the ever elusive minimalism. It has been rattling around in the back of my mind for years and not it has come to the forefront. About a month ago I happened upon a blog 365lessthings.com and a light bulb went off over my head. I can eliminate one thing every day. It will be painless, it will be fun and most importantly it will go mostly unnoticed by the boys in my life.

And that was what happened until one day recently they started noticing more room in each room, more boxes being filled and donated to charity, more things in those boxes that they didn’t even realize were gone. And then became the paradigm shift. They became involved and excited in minimalism as much as I have. My husband, on his own, went through his overflowing bookshelves and got rid of a few boxes of books. My son, on his own, went through his room and got rid of old clothes that no longer fit and toys no longer played with. It was a revelation, who knew that a clean and uncluttered house is everyone’s wish.

My house is still a mountain of stuff, but it is getting better. I still remove one item every day and on Saturdays we are not busy running errands we pick a room and declutter as much as possible. There is still the odd item of sentiment that can’t be parted with, but I figure that eventually we will come back to that item and it will be removed when the emotion of the clear and clean rooms overtakes the emotion behind wanting to keep an broken thing that was a favourite six years ago.

I am figuring it will take a few years of this to declutter to the point of clarity but I am willing to wait, I have a vision of my living room being on the cover of a magazine, tidy, clean and with only the necessities.