Minimalist Meet Up

When I first discovered minimalism, many years ago, one of the suggestions that appealed to me was to form a small group that would meet regularly. I am not really great at starting this sort of group, so that never got off the ground. But the idea of having a support group of folks who understand and can challenge "strange" simple living values has stayed with me.

Anyway, The Minimalists did the hard part for me. I found a group through their website and went to my first Internet meet-up last night. We talked about people who keep wanting to give us stuff because they think we are poor or deprived and how to communicate that. Also, how once you begin divesting yourself of stuff it is hard to understand others' acquiring or maintaining stuff. We also talked about reevaluating beliefs periodically to see if we still believe what we thought we believed.

Only four of us met out of a group of 38 or so, and it really took a lot out of me - I came home, ate (including two bowls of ice cream - whoops! Probably dealing with some nervousness there that I hadn't acknowledged previously) and went to bed almost immediately. I am going to try to continue to meet with them. For me, it is rare I form an instant connection with people, but can bond with continued exposure.

Organizing session

I'm exhausted today. Marcie the Organizer came over for our first session together and we started attacking paper clutter. We emptied five boxes - filled up my 8-gallon recycling bin three times and got a number of things ready for donating.

We found a Netflix DVD that has been missing for about a year.

We also discussed calendaring and I ordered a 1-31 file for my to-do list. I chose an accordion file. Every day when action items come in, I will decide when I want and/or need to do them, and file them in the appropriate number corresponding to the day I decide to do them. Or, if I have things I need to do, I will look at my calendar and decide what day I have time to do it, write it down on a piece of scrap paper, then put it in the appropriate day. If it's a task that needs repeating (such as a weekly or monthly chore), I will just put it in the next day I need to do that task. If something needs to be done a different month, put it in 31 behind the actual things I need to do on the 31st. Then, I will review the day the night before and the day of and do the task.

We discussed financial planning. Turns out, she has family in the business and they are local, and we've been looking for someone.

We discussed some more possibilities about where to put storage.

We discussed a home office setup. (The idea behind the accordion file for the action papers is that it can be wrapped up and put away. She had suggested the possibility of getting rid of our side door and putting a desk in that area. Kurt was enthusiastic. I kind of like the idea too, especially because we were talking about replacing it with a window. But at this point, I kind of just want to get the house organized. I am thinking of putting a desk in the living room.

We are brainstorming about how to get more closed storage to cut down on visual clutter.

There were a lot of decisions to make, not my strong suit.

My eye is on the prize though. I am looking forward to low clutter and a more maintainable schedule.

Purge Notes

42,103 emails in the inbox this morning. Now have 39,742.

Purge Notes

Email - started with 73,184. Ended with 42,078. Got rid of 31,106 emails!! In less than a day.

Sorted and shredded 6 pounds, 3.75 ounces (yes I weighed it) of paper clutter.

Woohoo!

(And managed to do several loads of laundry, made dinner for my husband's lunches, and cleaned the kitchen).

Organizer

So, I had my first hour with a professional organizer/home stager/decorated this week. A very sweet lady named Marcie. I showed her around the house and talked to her about my hopes and dreams, and we began thinking of some solutions to our space problems.

In 2010, the average square feet in new single-family homes was 2394. Our home is 1432, built in 1950. We have three bedrooms, one small bathroom, and a two-car garage.

I really enjoy the challenge of living in a smaller space. I enjoy that we use our entire house and trying to come up with ideas of how to better use the space.

With three boys, we have acquired a lot over the years and I have begun digging out this summer, but it's a lot of work and it doesn't come easily to either one of us. When I get into decluttering mode though, it does get easier. I stop buying as many things and start feeling less emotionally-attached and beholden to the things I have. So, I've decided to work with Marcie and get some ideas from her. We had a great rapport and it was fun to brainstorm with her - gets my mind churning.

Intuitive Eating

One of my big goals is I want to read a lot more than I have been. I waste too much time on-line, mostly on social media or the wormholes it takes me, but I want to read a lot more honest-to-goodness books.

Goal: read a book a week. That should be easy.  There are so many books on my list, easily a year's worth at that rate. (This doesn't include audio books. I may come up with an audio book goal later).

Anyway, book the first. Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I've read the first three chapters.

Goal: lose weight. I'm not ready to talk about how much I need to lose yet. I've lost and maintained about ten pounds since the beginning of the year. Not super impressive, but I intend on keeping it off, so I'm going slowly. I'll talk more about it in other blog posts, I'm sure. There's a lot to say. 

Discipline Me

I suck at discipline. It doesn't come naturally to me. I am not someone who likes to be disciplined for the sake of being disciplined.

Except ... I do! I like the feeling of peace I get when I'm on top of my game. And I like the getting stuff done part. And I like moving slowly, rather than last minute rushing. Discipline allows that.

Something I have discovered about myself: I can form habits. Useful habits that make me happy. For example, I have somehow developed the habit of keeping the bathroom picked up - pretty much all the time. I have all my things exactly in the same places and when I'm finished with my routine, everything is back where it should be - behind closed drawers or doors. And, it doesn't feel like work.

So, I know it can be done. I just need to do that with about a jillion other things!!

Discipline, even though it is tough and feels a little sucky to me, it's worth it. Because I end up having to spend less time doing stuff I don't like.

So many things...

I'll start with this - I am trying to make more of life. I feel like I waste too much time. I have a lot to do. It's overwhelming. It's hard for me to see anything other than the big picture and the big picture is overwhelming. So I've decided to keep this blog to catalog what I am doing, what my hopes are, what steps I'm taking to add discipline to my life, and what my goals are. And whatever else pops into my head that help me find my truth, live it, and live with intention.

Some things I hope to accomplish:

• declutter my home, keep a tidier home, and eventually spend less of my time keeping house
• do more things that I enjoy - reading, nature walks, adventures with my kids, date my husband
• have more quality family time 
• lose weight and exercise regularly

 Anyway, as a perfectionist, I need to keep track of this stuff or I will get discouraged and think nothing has happened. I need to remind myself that things are happening.