Nothing about me seems minimal. I’m an extremist in every way. But I also appreciate simple. So I’m going to consider living more simply and let go of the THINGS that complicating life.

A year and a half ago I started the minimalist journey with a capsule wardrobe and it’s been a bite size piece approach since, making slow but steady progress.

I don’t want an empty house, I don’t want extreme minimalism. But I do want to hold myself accountable for what I keep, and I want easy access to my inventory, and I don’t want to waste countless hours of my life managing and wrestling with THINGS. Putting things away, picking up things, organizing things, seeing things on every surface in my home, washing things, cleaning things, things, things, THINGS!!! I want to have only the things I need, maybe a spare IF I have the space and the time to clean that much inventory. That’s key. We keep more than we have time to KEEP. If it’s collecting dust it’s obvious you don’t use it and DON’t have time to clean it. Having too much disparages you from cleaning too. Having only what you love makes you enjoy cleaning it.

But starting and staying on the journey to thing accountability are two totally different ideas. Motivated by a dear friend I decided to join her on this 30 day minimalist challenge, to discard an unused or unwanted item a day.
So feel free to join me as I purge different categories each day and hold myself accountable to what I’m keeping. No more than what I’m using and maybe a spare if space and time to clean it accommodates.

Please post in the comments your own purges if your following me; I’d love to see your progress and also if you are farther than me on this journey and have some category suggestions I should purge please post those suggestions too and I’ll hit there next.

Day ONE; Barware

For someone who rarely drinks and even more rarely hosts a barware collection isn’t justified. That’s not to say it isn’t for you but for me, it isn’t. I have four beer glasses but every single time I’ve offered a beer to a guest they say “Just the bottle is fine, no need for a glass.” So I don’t know why I bother keeping them. I LOVE the set of six goblets I got from my wedding and they suit both wine and a multitude of other cocktails. So I am keeping those and dumping all the shot glasses, wine and beer glasses that were just sitting. I prefer serving in canning jars anyways. No loss really. Bonus actually because now I have a free shelf to buy and store the kind of glasses I’ll actually use. One day down, twenty-nine to go!

Day Two; Bedroom

Today I hit my bedroom!
  Since I was recently gifted this jackpot of a sewing box (more like a toolbox honestly)

I condensed my two old, smaller sewing boxes into the new fabulous one and threw out the two old.

This minimalism endeavor of mine actually began a little over a year ago with a capsule wardrobe. And it needs to be maintained. Capsule wardrobes don’t mean never buy new pieces. Or to limit yourself, except to what you actually use and wear, it just means being accountable for what you keep. I peeled a few items out of my closet that I just wasn’t wearing anymore and tossed them. Since the Wuhan China Virus (note I commonly refer to as Wu-CV-19) Stitch Fix

https://www.stitchfix.com

has been the compensator for my not getting to go shopping, and keeping me feeling revived and in control, so with it I’ve been refilling my wardrobe with new pieces and that’s ok but it’s just as essential that I also maintain my capsule wardrobe by balancing the input with output.

Linens are a great category to purge when on your way to minimalism. I did my linen closet a year ago when I started this journey and am down to one winter flannel set and one spring/summer linen set per bed. I eliminated the need for a linen closet and thus the task of organizing it, by keeping all seasonal sets in the closet of the bedroom it belongs to. But since then I got a much nicer mattress pad and managed NOT to throw away the old one. So now I have three: new, old and spare. Yet I’ve continued to wash and reuse the new one vs rotating with my spare….well…because I prefer it. Which means I no longer need two but only one. So. Why do I have still have THREE? More mindless insanity. Today I get back on top and toss the two I dislike with my bedroom zone minimizing.
The top of my chiffonier is SO dusty. That’s because there is just too much stuff up there to move and dust quickly and easily. Only two items were planned for that space. One for looks and the other for function: my vase of dried hydrangea and a basket to store my decorative pillows from my bed when not in use. Yet it’s loaded with a BUNCH of things. What happened? Today I’m removing excess clutter that has little to no function. One useless decorative item per surface is plenty. The sun hat and large clunky candle holder don’t make the cut.

I love this Yankee Candle holder. It’s beautiful and it reminds of the trip to the Yankee Candle Factory with my dad, when he bought it for me as a kid. A couple problems though. Its big and I don’t realy have a surface sufficient for showing it off. Just putting a pillar candle out is sufficient vs the votive this big thing accommodates. So the reality is the memory is the only function it’s serving currently and that’s why I’m just taking a picture of it and letting it go. The hat I love but I don’t have a place to store it and only using it a few times a year wasn’t worth making a spot to me. So that’s going too.

Linen closets with less are so much easier to organize, I do it more often.

I love the uncluttered look I regained on top of my chiffonier so much I dusted it quickly and easily to celebrate. So much more joy than the memory of that candle holder. These simple changes made me so happy the energy spilled over and urged me to purge my bedside table drawer too. It was so overloaded with papers and junk that I never looked in there because it was too discouraging and annoying to dig through it all to look for that one essential item. I made good use of all the extra small boxes my husband was hoarding on his bed side table though, to house each of the items I kept. The tops and bottoms of watch boxes, iPhone boxes and jewelry boxes made perfect tools for compartmentalizing the little odds n ends I want to keep in my drawer and made it easy to see and find them.

  This purging thing is so infectious that my husband in watching me was motivated to do his bedside drawer as well. Yay! Go hubby!

Day Three; Sentimental

Late starting school today because I was just so excited to get started on today’s minimizing count down.

Category SENTIMENTAL😬 (record scratch).

Broken statutes. Broken anything should go but broken religious items should get immediate attention and reverent burial.

This one is REALLY tough for me. This Fatima Virgin and Crucifix were my First Holy Communion gifts and I’ve been considering burial for years as they are in pieces. Recently I’ve realized I do them no justice letting them live on in this condition. I’ve fixed many times but their vulnerable and welded cracks leave them susceptible to more future breaks. The cycle repeats. It breaks, it sits in a box waiting mending, I mend it, it breaks again. This is the very definition of insanity.

“The definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting different results,”

Albert Einstein

And……it takes WAY too much of time that I don’t have. I’m sure I could spend this time in prayer and do both the Virgin and my Saviour more glory and my soul more good. So they are packed for burial and as soon as the ground softens, the funeral will happen. 

I’ve already replaced these First Communion souvenirs with items in a more edifying condition, which was just the front of two very beautiful cards put into frames from my wedding which seems to be compensating for the sentimentality lost as well. 

Also in sentimental category were some “daddy gifts”, things I’ve never used because they just don’t fit my life style and keep just because daddy gifted to me: (a bread maker, I prefer baking my bread by hand, a turkey roaster, I already have one, it’s called my oven, and a deli meat slicer 🤔yea not sure who buys the whole boars head butt). I also added my OXO spiraler, though not sentimental, it was housed with these big storage cloggers that I really only use once or twice a year and can use a peeler just as easily. So done with big clunky tools that don’t carry enough weight in my year to plug up a spot the 362 days they aren’t being used, for the 2 they WERE being used.

Day Four; Technology

Unused technology is a common hoard. Old phones, old gaming systems, old routers, chargers, USB ports, keyboards and even wires. Today I’m going through mine to see what I’m keeping that belongs to something I no longer own, hasn’t been used in years OR can easily be bought for cheap when needed vs keeping for years until I need it. This last one is big to me. It seems crazy to me to keep an AV cord when I could grab for $2 if and when I need it and save myself years of keeping it in waiting. Things that can easily be replaced aren’t worth keeping in my eyes. Keep only the stuff that MATTERS.

My husbands shared this enlightening story with me today. His coworker asked him if he wanted to take a ride to Home Depot to get a hammer with him. My husband responded “Why do you need a hammer? I’ve seen like three around here.” But he could not for the life of him remember where he saw them nor could either of them find one once they had a look around. So off to Home Depot they went to spend the money.
This is a classic scenario but yes multiple problems contribute. Yes organization is key, but it’s difficult to be organized when you keep a LOT. We often end up going out and buying what we already own anyways so why keep it if it can be replaced that easily.

I’m making an effort to organize what I keep and if I can’t keep it well I’m not keeping at all. It’s truly a way to better respect what you keep, I think. Many people are concerned that throwing things away is frivolous and disrespectful. “They cost money,” people so often say. And so does keeping it. Money in organizing it, money in having a space big enough to hoard it and more money wasted when you can’t keep track of inventory and buy more of what you already have. Not to mention time and energy managing, and cleaning the immense amounts of stuff we feel necessary to keep in order to get through life. Quality vs quantify always.

“Complexity is the enemy of simplicity.”

David Jenyns

Day FIVE; mugs

Cracked and broken mugs, sayonara! One hot cocoa mug for each of my kids and one travel, one ceramic for home and one espresso mug for me kept. I think that’s plenty! Mugs are not souvenirs. We do not need more than one for each family member and maybe a guest or two. Last time I hosted and needed more I bought festive paper cups for hot apple cider we served at an outdoor autumn birthday party. I can always do the same again.

DAY SIX; DVD’s

My kids watch everything on Netflix, Hulu or Prime Video. If for some reason he’ll freezes over and those are not available – great! We’ll play board games and be fine. I’m not sure what I’m keeping DVD’s for. Unless it’s memorabilia like my wedding videos, or home videos that can’t be streamed, I’m not keeping. So tossing a few of the last ones that managed to creep into my home since the last purge. I did keep a few scientific videos on a topic I would actually reference in the future.

DAY SEVEN; Blankets

Blankets can become quite a hoard. First deciding what’s a “normal” stash and then limit yourself to how far you go past that. I kept: one quilt and one duvet for each bed, and two throws for each couch, one heavier, one lighter one.

If you have the space for a spare duvet for a guest – I think a good idea to keep and extra for a sleeper sofa or something being used like that. I do not:(

My kids baby blankets are going today. They actually have no interest in keeping them for their own children. Each of our kids, just like we did, wants to find their own identity in finding their styles and picking themes for their children. Their own dated baby accessories won’t likely be wanted unless you have a classic or handmade piece, then keep it. I’m ridding myself of those that aren’t.

DAY EIGHT; pointless

You may think this was pointless to post or to purge at all. One harmless item, right? WRONG! This is bulky, LOUD, and so sturdy it damages walls and baseboards when my kids ram them with it. It stood the test of 10 years this Melissa & Doug carriage. We call it the HOBO cart because it has no home in the house and gets filled with useless junk we are too lazy to put away. It used to be great for four year olds and under, not just for playing grocery store but for a walker for babies learning to walk too. But I have no children those ages anymore and it’s time to go to a house that does. I would have done this earlier had I not been keeping JUST because my sister and her husband (one of my oldest friends) gifted to his godson, my son. And their marriage is history so I think I was holding onto this piece more out of soothing for the loss of a relationship I loved. Huge no no! Pinpoint whenever you do this. And free yourself. I do not want my house to be a graveyard of bones to the things I lost in life, but a refreshing joy of what I have in life. So this is a BIG, useless, junk accumulating, space hogging piece withOUT purpose. Thus….a BIG WIN in letting go of today.

DAY NINE; Misc

Today my family joined me and each of them contributed a useless, broken item that was no longer serving them.

DAY TEN; clunky

“Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we value most and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.”

Joshua Becker, the blogger behind Becoming Minimalist

This quote has helped me SO much further dive in post the things that are still functional and but don’t love and are obstructing my view and my access to the things I do. This table topper Melissa & Doug chalkboard/dry erase board gets moved from spot to spot. We have a large board. No reason for this to be obstructing my surfaces. I like my open empty and free to be used dining table better.

DAY ELEVEN; yard

DAY TWELVE; yard

DAY 13; Multiples

These mortars and pestles are just countertop clutter. I have only ground spices ONCE in the 3-5 years owning them. I kept because they are such beautiful stone and I always HOPED I we would be the kind of cool that bought fresh whole seeds for spices but it’s just not the person I actually am. So getting a tighter grin on reality and letting them all go. Whew! I feel so much lighter already in just SAYING that and my counters definitely LOOK lighter.

DAY 14; Multiples

Why do I keep THREE sets of mixing bowl? I really don’t bake that much. So vintage 70’s set and Walmart set go and William Sonoma clear glass set my sister gifted a Christmas long ago stays.

🎵I’M HALF WAY THERE WOAHO🎶

DAY 15; Personal

I think this is were minimalism truly taps into the psychosis in keeping some things. This gorgeous blush, champagne and glitter sweater my sister gave me is so old and mis shaped that I never wear. I love it but it looks awful on me. But my sis gave it to me I would remind myself each time I consider letting go. So today I remind myself it’s the sister I love not the sweater and I’m letting go with the resolution to spend more quality to show and feel love from my sis without having to keep things to attain it.

DAY 16; Personal

Same story here. My good friend gave this book to my son when he was a year old or so. It’s WAS a quality board book and a darling story. But currently it is ripped into multiple pieces and so inconvenient to assemble and read that it just sits in a basket getting moved from place to place. Target the graveyards of emotion and let em go. You feel so free of the weight afterwards. They do more harm than good. It’s like it creates another responsibility in keeping them. I DO NOT need anymore responsibilities.

DAY 17

DAY 18

DAY 19

DAY 20

DAY 21

DAY 22

DAY 23

DAY 24; BABY KEEPSAKES

DAY 24; EMAIL

DAY 25 WORK

DAY 26 Fridge/Pantry

DAY 27 Sock Monster

DAY 28: Paper Clutter

Day 29: STORAGE

DAY 30; MISC

THE END

Thank you so much for following me on this amazing cleansing and material detox. The trending is minimalism but to me it’s more than that. And less restrictive than that word. I like simplicity. Freedom from things and the chaos they cause and the management they require. Please share pics in the comments if your joining me on this and post the day your on with the pic of the things you let go. If your further on this journey than me and have some categories that you think I should purge over the next month, please comment them too and I will hit the areas you suggest and post the progress.🤓