I'm a Minimalist...

...living in an excessive world.

I've always liked the "feeling" of having less, but not necessarily lived that way.  I loved (and still love) to buy stuff. Lots of stuff.  But I learned a short time ago that the extra "stuff" doesn't really make me happy.  After today, when you look in my closet you will find exactly 7 pairs of shoes.  Yep.  Seven pairs. And four of the seven pairs are flip flops.  I'm definitely not Carrie from Sex and the City.  Shoes are not my thing.  Give me my Yellow Box flip flops and I'm good.  I had two big boxes of shoes sitting in my closet.  Did I wear them all?  Nope.  But at one time I spent a lot of money on shoes.  Inside my head I thought that I should hold onto them because I spent a good chunk of change on them.  They took up room and were not serving a purpose in my home.  But I let them sit there.  My closet was also full of the cute little clothes I wore back before I had kids - back when I had money to blow on stuff like that.  Not only am I no longer 98 pounds I am absolutely positive that I'll never be 98 pounds again.  But I loved my clothes back in the day when I was skinny enough to fit into them.  And like my shoes I spent a lot of money on them.  So, again, in my head I thought I should hold onto them.

Today I was cleaning my closet.  Again.  I hated the cluttered look of it.  I stood and looked at it wondering what I could do to make it look better.  Should I buy more baskets?  Maybe buying more storage items won't solve the problem.  Maybe it's the "stuff" that's the problem.  Then some sort of psychosis set in.  I grabbed a trash bag and just went crazy.  If I hadn't worn it in the past year it was GOING!  If it wasn't really comfortable it was GOING!  My kids watched me in disbelief.  My daughter went to her room and started hiding her stuff thinking I was going to attack her room next.  My oldest son looked at my youngest son and said "Come on, buddy, let's leave mommy alone for a little bit."  He was worried I had lost my mind.  I had held onto this stuff for so long and wouldn't let it go before.  I was half tempted to attack my hubby's side of the closet, but thought better of it.  I'm sure he wouldn't care because he throws away everything anyway - even the stuff we should keep.

The whole time I was ransacking  my closet I heard my mom in my head saying "You might need that one day."  But I ignored it and plowed on.  My mom & dad keep everything. Seriously.  This world teaches us that we need more.  And I am finally understanding that this is not the case.

Less is more.

And you know what?  I feel so much better now.  I called my sis and told her to come look through my mountain of stuff to see if there's anything she wanted because what she doesn't want will be sitting in the local Goodwill on Monday.

Oh, and by the way this is only one of the three boxes of "stuff."

Now I can go buy those expensive Wood Hangers I like.  I never bought them before because I had so many clothes it would cost a fortune to buy enough to hang all my stuff.  :o)~

Watch out world.  I'm on a roll.  Next up - the kids rooms!