Downsizing Life

Source: Pinterest

Rather recently, my mother downsized her life. She went from a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home to a.... RV. And this was by choice! It got me to thinking about how she is managing the move and I have to say I am in awe and incredibly inspired. She went from so-and-so thousand square feet of space to around 200-300 square feet. And you know what? I feel she has the right idea.

After visiting her new home, I came to my own house and looked around appalled. I have built a nest of useless... stuff. Maybe 15% of what is in my house is necessary or has a personal value. The rest? It really is just... junk. Useless knick-knacks that collect dust and overwhelm space. I have way too many gadgets and gizmos in my kitchen. 3 sets of drinkware. A brownie maker, cake pop maker, and miniature cupcake maker. While I already have a 10 pc set of bakeware! 15 coffee cups. 6 mixing bowls.... I really can go on and that's just the kitchen! I can't even start on how many clothes I own, or shoes, or linens (15 blankets alone!). It's rather embarrassing that I have accumulated so much stuff. And after seeing the simplicity of my mom's new place... I feel suffocated by it.

Source: Pinterest

I hope that little by little I can rid myself of this clutter. For it just being my husband and I, with no children, there's no excuse! And this isn't a simple "grab everything and load it up for charity!" because I have a hard time of getting rid of things that were given to me. (Which? Is most everything.) I'm afraid of hurting the givers feelings. Or the things that I received from family members passed... I have an extremely hard time with feeling that I have to keep everything to preserve memory or just to honor them in some way. And this goes for anything from a set of mixing bowls to hand mirror or sewing kit.

I started this weekend with a rather small step... I filled a 30 gallon trash bag with clothes. And only stopped because I ran out of room in the bag. Ahh! I can, I think, take the baby steps of going through what is mine, personally. Clothes, shoes, makeup... I can sort through all of that without coming into the dreaded feeling of obligation to keep things. And hopefully one day in the future I will be able to take a step further and a step further until I too can look upon my house with a sense of simplicity and modesty.

(But never could I downsize my library. I need all 300+ books.)