Decluttering

Anna posted this bit of wisdom she's run into in the comments of one of my posts so I thought I'd share it here:

"It's not about getting rid of stuff, it's about making room to live."

This is precisely how I feel about the process!

When Lar decided to paint the bedroom a month or so ago I took the opportunity to really go through my clothes/stuff in a ruthless manner. I would never say that I have a big problem with collecting things, but certain types of possessions are sticky to let go of, clothes, books, supplies, and magazines/papers are the worst. I just don't tend to accumulate other stuff as much (thank goodness).

Getting the bedroom settled with only things I use and want in it has created an aura of peace there. I find myself really loving to go into that room, as though I can mentally stretch out and go ahhh. I like the fact that I know what is in there, and that isn't something I can say about the rest of the house especially the studio.

Every couple of months I find myself cleaning the studio again because all of the desk space has disappeared and I am working on the floor. The shelves are sagging under the weight of books and the closet is inaccessible because its too full of stuff.

Going through the fabrics wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. I set a reasonably generous limit of how much I could keep and as I sorted it really fell into place.

For UFOs I've set the limit of one bin... it is now full. If I want to keep another project something in there has to get finished or abandoned (lets see how that works out)

Today I began the task of going through my books. The goal is to reduce them by 1/3. I've gotten one shelf of the three done and again I can sense this peace that comes over me as I look at that shelf, it dissipates as I look at the pile of books that I need to get rid of though.

I am definitely on the right track here.

The picture is just for pretty's sake, I love the graceful shapes of those balloon flower petals.