I woke at 3am to the most beautiful sound – rain falling on the roof. I got up and opened the windows and front door to let the cool, fresh air in. I love the smell of rain and we desperately need it to settle down the bushfires. It’s been raining steadily for 5 hours now and looks like it’s set in for the day so at last we get a reprieve from the heatwave.
While DH was working on painting the bedroom yesterday I was busy making a detailed plan for downsizing our ‘stuff’ even further. I sat down with some graph paper and drew up a room plan of our little 4 room house. I worked out which pieces of furniture will come with us and what we need to keep for staging the house to sell. I am excited just thinking about it! But I realise I need to let go of even more – and I’m more than ready.
When I first started to sort and get rid of ‘stuff’ it felt like a real effort – a struggle. It felt hard to make the decisions about our belongings and emotional at times. But the more I got rid of the better I felt. There is a saying “the pain is in the resistance” and I think that describes it exactly. Once I stopped resisting and once I broke the imagined emotional hold that various items seemed to have, it just became easier and easier. I realised that the memories are in my head and my heart, not in the stuff that reminded me of those memories. Holding on to things from the past keeps me tied to the past. I try to live in the moment, and less ‘stuff’ is certainly part of that for me.
So I spent yesterday going through some of our already sorted and decluttered stuff and thats what I’ll be doing over the next few weeks. I’m calling it Round 2. And in my mind I constantly picture myself in our new little house, peaceful, calm and just living life simple… 4 rooms…. Sounds like bliss to me! Time to get back to it…
Here is a great post on Downsizing Your Stuff & Rightsizing Your Life.
That sounds fabulous! We currently have a pretty large house, but the layout is not ideal for us. When we downsize, we’d like something with a lot less space, but a much more livable layout.
Sounds like you’re making great progress on your downsizing!!
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Stuff seems to be all wrapped up in emotion and that is why people struggle with letting it go. I have several large storage totes full of my children’s old stuffed animals and I pull them out of the storage area several times each year when I am looking for something but I am still not ready to part with them.
This could be the year though. I am not sure I can get rid of all of them but I will consider it a success if I can reduce from 3 totes to 1. I want to keep their favourites to share with their own children but the others could go to the charity shop for other children to enjoy.
Very happy that you are getting some rain. Snowing here this morning but it will be turning to freezing rain soon. All school buses cancelled today in this part of Canada.
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Louise Reply:
January 30th, 2013 at 2:17 am
yes, we attach our emotions to the stuff and also I think we often feel a sense of obligation to keep things so we don’t forget the emotions associated with it. good luck with your decluttering!
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4 rooms sounds great to me too!! Just think of all the time you’re going to save on housecleaning. My house is just shy of 3000 square feet and honestly I am sick of it.
Getting rid of stuff is difficult. There ARE emotional attachments that have to be overcome and what I do is I wait until the mood hits and then I can get rid of just about anything. It’s surprising, inspiring and comforting too, however, to realize just how little we need to be happy. Wish I’d figured that one out long ago but better late than never. When are you moving into your new place?
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Louise Reply:
January 30th, 2013 at 2:15 am
yep, the emotional side of it is the hardest, once you get through that it gets easier. we are planning to put our house on the market in about 6 months. But I could be getting laid off sometime this year so that might have an impact on how fast we can get the renovations done before we sell it.
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I love the planning part of downsizing/de-cluttering. Enjoy!
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