Beginning Minimalism

I’ll be working on two goals in my life this year:

Simplifying & Minimizing  

I have decided to make the declaration here on my blog which should help me to define and track my goals and basically be hold me accountable for them.

I’m hoping as I share what I’m working on, you’ll share what you’ve tried and your successes in these areas, too.

I’d like to be clear, first of all, I don’t see myself living in a house where the rooms are inhabited by say 2 chairs, a hanging light bulb and a small table. A big part of this process for me is going to be defining what will work for me. I want to make decisions that not only I can live with, but that Pops and my family can endure also.

Let’s say I’m on a

“Simplifying Path”.

I started over the holidays with the most basic of cleaning out tasks…

Going through my Closet!

Honestly, I do go through my closet a few times a year as it is, but this time I went through it with real intention.

I took my time and really looked at each pair of pants, each top, each sweater, each skirt, each pair of shoes, etc. to decide:

1. do I still like it?
2. does it still fit?, and
3. will I actually wear it?

You see, I tend to wear the same exact outfits over and over again each week, week in and week out never straying from the same ol’ thing. I’ve decided, that needs to change.

At this point, I’m okay with keeping a piece of clothing that I think I will actually use. I don’t want to go through this process being wasteful either. So, while I did clear out (and donate) quite a few bags of clothing items, I also organized and rearranged what I’m keeping making it all easier to look through.

Honestly, I had items in there that I had even forgotten I had – how sad is that?!

So, now the test will be to really see what I actually wear out of what is left.

At the end of the winter season, I will go back through my winter items and, yes, if I haven’t worn them so far this year, then I will donate those items, too.

Hold me to that okay?

That is where I’ve begun in this process and here are some other simplifying “to do’s” I’m adding to my list and will share my progress on:

• Email Inbox – clearing out and cleaning up (simplifying, unsubscribing, etc.)
• This Blog – simplifying the look of this blog (I may have trouble with this one!)
• Books – tackling the many bookshelves I have both in my house and in my studio
• My Studio – I will have to make major efforts here – and may need lots of support
• Cds – yes, I still have a crazy amount of cds from my cd buying days in like, the 80’s and 90’s. I need to weed through them, listen to some and decide what needs to go!

I’m sure I’ll continue to add to this list as I make progress through these tasks.

Have any thoughts or tips? I’d really love to hear them. Want to join me? I’d love that too!

Happy Wednesday,