Simplifying Miss K's art resources
For me, our first steps towards living a simplified life at home was to get rid of the excess 'stuff'. Do you remember when I wrote about my decluttering intentions here last January? I found it so hard to write about it in this space even though there was so much I wanted to say about living a minimalist, clutter-free life. I didn't know if you would be interested in what I was, essentially, throwing out of our home. Decluttering is such a huge part of our journey towards living a simple, minimalist, anti-consumerist life with my family, I knew I had to write about it. 'Simplifying', 'living lighter', 'decluttering', however you want to describe it, felt like such an overwhelming subject. Where do you even begin? So I am just going to jump right in and hope to find the words I need. And maybe some more words in the future.
Well, I cleared so much out last year, bags and bags of things that were just unnecessary in our home, cluttering up our living environment. Things that had to be lifted up and moved just to find something or to clean around. Things that took up mental energy by just being in our home, even though they weren't used or admired, literally just stuffed into cupboards, or in spaces under beds, looking dusty and so untidy. We don't have a loft space or garage for storage, so everything we have, has to be directly in our immediate living spaces around the home. No putting stuff into boxes and storing out of sight just in case we might need something in the future. Everything we own needs to be useful or beautiful to us right now, here in the present, in our present.
In 2012 I hope to peel back another layer of stuff to try to live a truely minimalist, simplified family life. Simplified/minimalist living is not a one time thing, for us it will be an on-going journey. Do you have any tips for living a more simplified life at home?