Resolutions Update

As part of my New Years’ Resolution this year, I pledged to lead a more minimalistic life. Seems simple enough, right? Cut back on excess in all areas and live happily with what you have. In doing so, I figured I would have increased amount of time to devote to old leisurely activities such as reading and piano. But then, as always, this simple process became unnecessarily complicated. I start thinking about what I’m ready to toss out, a process I actually get excited about – I love de-cluttering! However, then I start debating what to keep and what to toss. Seems simple, but in a minimalistic life, the few things left are highly representative of you. Yes, you possessed them all along, but now they stand out in stark contrast to the large amount of space you've acquired and really speak to who you are. Puts a bit of a damper on the happy-go-lucky throwing unimportant things away task when you feel pressured to carefully chose what you’re going to let represent you.

Then came the debate of "How far do I take it???" Part of me wanted to go down to the bare necessities. I’m talking about pants and a t-shirt all day, every day. At one point, I even wanted to take it to wearing either a white or a black tee every day, and khakis or jeans with plain shoes. I wanted to see how content I could be in my own skin with the bare essentials clothing me…no sparkling designs, or flashy earrings or shoes, or big bags – just me, as I am. Which then lead me to think that perhaps I need to do some research on minimalism. Maybe find an autobiography of some minimalistic revolutionary leader or the basic principles and philosophies behind minimalism. Then I thought – to be going minimalist, you are doing too much. This should not be some harried task, but rather a pleasured, effortless act exposing my more of soul to the everyday world - when you look this way, you see ME, not my material stuff.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I started cutting back little and little in different areas. First, I started minimizing time spent in front of the TV, or on the MacBook, or playing with technology in general. This transition was eased by an increased workload. Then I went on to no purchasing of unnecessary items that are not essential to life. I must say, I have done rather well in the “No Shopping” department. I did buy a pair of silver-studded booties from Macy's, HOWEVER, I purchased them with a gift card I received for Christmas. Plus, black is the most basic color you can get, right? And, ideally, I would love to be at a point where I open my closest and I have very simple choices facing me of what to wear, not a million choices for what to cover each part of my body with. However, at the same time, I think I'm way too creative of a person to ever live like that contently for an extended period of time. Shoot, I think I nearly went crazy for that decade I spent in uniforms. I did everything I could to add my own little twist to the monotony of life at there.

This is the way a friend put it… “…the way I see it, I don't want anything I deem unnecessary or excessive or just not special to me in whatever way I require, BUT I do want to have my creative enjoyment…I want to have enough things but only ones that I really like and value…to keep finding/purchasing things above a certain par of being worthwhile to me and keep ridding myself of unnecessary things…that way I guess my inventory would stay about the same but be much more effective.”

I think that perfectly summarizes where I want to be in this journey toward minimalism...at least for now. I think I'm going to make some big cuts as I continue this moving process. Slight tangent: I am most likely moving come May, so I went ahead and rented a Public Storage unit so that I can start slowly moving out of this house, rather than having to do one big rushed move. Personally, I think it's a genius idea! And, I'm going to use this slow move to kill two birds with one stone: 1) greatly decrease the anxiety and stress of moving by spreading it out over many weeks and 2) use it to cut my accumulation of "stuff" at least in half. Wish me luck!