Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Clutter Minimized

Welcome to the March edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Clearing the Clutter cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month our participants wrote about de-cluttering and cleaning up. Please check out the links to their thoughts at the end of this post.

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I've always been a sentimental sort. I held on to items for the emotional attachment. I'm still disappointed that my year books are missing. Once when I was a kid, I kept all my bandages from a particularly bad scrape. I guess I wanted to see how many it would take by the time I healed? I think this goes to show that I'd be a prime candidate for hoarding.

I lived in the the same house with my ex-husband for... 11 years? The longer you're in one place, the easier it is to accumulate more and more clutter. But when I left, I took almost nothing. I had to start from scratch. It can be easy to go crazy with that (shopping for a new home), though, too. And then I discovered minimalism. I want to live on the road and I surely can't take everything with me! And keep stuff in storage... to what end? So I knew I needed to downsize.


Where is the "Living" space?
Photo Credit: nilexuk

After our first major downsizing of stuff and cutting back on "extra" bills, we realized we could fit into a smaller apartment. With those smaller bills, including rent, we figured out that we could afford for me to switch from full time to part time work. Each step along the way has meant more time together, whether it meant more money or less.

After minimizing down to a 200 square foot travel trailer and now back up to a 1300 square foot home, I think there is a little backlash. I find I'm hoarding extra jars for possible projects... just because I can. I'm still making an effort not to collect things we don't need, though. More stuff requires more time; time that I'd prefer to spend with my family.

Have you ever cut back on your stuff, your bills or your commitments to have more time?


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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple living into their lives by clearing out the clutter. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Going Green!

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