31 Days to a Minimalist Lifestyle Day 23

I am writing every day in October--taking on the challenge set forth by The Nester for bloggers to write a "31 Days to..." blog series. I'm tackling Minimalist Living and you can click here to read Day 22's post.

I am feeling great after purging and eliminating and trimming the excess STUFF from our home. Yesterday I started in on my scrapbook room and thinned out a LOT of the kids' baby clothing that I was saving. Why was I saving it? My kids never wore anything that was worn by my husband, and the only "old" thing they wore as a baby was a sweater knitted by my mom for my brother nearly 40 years ago.

It really felt good to let go of those clothes, allowing them to be used TODAY by people who need them.

It prepared me for today's feat.

Digging through the memorabilia, photos, bits & bobs, etc. that lie in wait in my scrapbook room. No one can accuse me of throwing away my kids' childhoods--it's all shoved in that room!

Let's take a peek at what it looked like yesterday:

A piece of fleece thrown over the top of a MOUNTAIN of  assorted stuff I thought I needed to save.

I started the process today by emptying out the room. Let me just say this "room" is more of a closet with a window as it measures about 4' x 8'.  Calling it a room is generous =) Here are the piles of stuff I pulled out of there. It was like a clown car at a circus, the stuff just kept piling up outside the room!

I then cleaned the room by washing the window, wiping down the baseboards, vacuuming, etc.

Yes, you are seeing correctly. That's a cabinet missing a door. We needed the hinges to fix a kitchen cabinet, so my cabinet has been missing a door for a while.

I then put the (too big) folding table back into the room. It has been out since this summer when we used it at a garage sale and never got put back because the room itself was too trashed to fit it in. Where's it been? Yeah. In our master bedroom. That's where tables go, right?

 I used the table as work space to start sorting through all the ephemera I'd accumulated over the past 15 years 18 years several decades. Using the mantra, "Do my kids want this stuff when I'm gone?" I was able to sort through everything and decide what to keep and what to toss. I cannot believe how much stuff I've saved! I had doubles and TRIPLES of old photos. I had negatives from really BAD photos. I had bazillions of bits of this and that and honestly, I found it very freeing to get rid of stuff.

To protect the innocent, I'll spare you from a detailed list or even a photo of what exactly went in there, lest my children think I don't value ALL of their drawings. I did designate a small box for each of them to save stuff that might not fit in a scrapbook. The results? A black garbage bag worth of stuff!

And then this to donate:

And this to donate to Brett's school's card making club:

I really feel great after removing this load physically and emotionally. I have narrowed things down to a level where I truly believe I can get it all into a scrapbook. Ok, maybe a few scrapbooks. Whatever.

I'm giving myself one year to work through it all. If it's not done then, I PROMISE I'll get rid of it. Promise. This idea might not be YOUR idea of "minimalist", but for me, this truly is minimalist. I love my kids and they have created so many amazing works of art, school papers, etc, but I realized that while it's nice to keep a few things, my memories of the kids are NOT defined by what I save.


Tomorrow I'll reveal the scrapbook room with it's new minimalist stuff inside!!

Day 1 email

Day 2 magazines

Day 3 kitchen tools 

Day 4 junk drawer

Day 5 bathroom counter

Day 6 first aid & medicines

Day 7 kitchen sink

Day 8 plastic containers

Day 10 spices

Day 11 mail

Day 12 linen closet part 1

Day 13 linen closet part 2

Day 14 donate!!!

Day 15 outdoor spaces

Day 16 bakeware

Day 17 pantry

Day 18 laundry

Day 19 office

Day 20 dresser

Day 21 closet

Day 22 sentimental items