The de cluttering journey began, for me, very organically.
As a Dieter in Recovery cleaning up the mental clutter was the first step on my journey to wellness.
When you clean up one area, you start to notice all the other parts that need tweaking. My physical environment became claustrophobic and time consuming, and it all started to feel like “stuff”. When I visited houses that were uncluttered I felt calm and when I visited houses with lots of stuff I felt distracted and anxious. I knew I needed to make some changes in my own home environment.
Downsizing to a 900 square foot space made it easier. When you remove the items that serve no purpose and ones, according to Maria Kondo, “don’t spark joy” it happens without a great deal of effort.
Biggest bonus: clean up is so fast. Best gift: you appreciate everything you have, and if you don’t, you get rid of it.
I am not offering the steps on how to do it. Check out ‘The Minimalists’, two very engaging men who take you on their journey with a couple of films, books and numerous podcasts. Also, watch vlogs on how different individuals approached it.
The most important thing is to do it in your way and in your time frame. It has many facets to it and it is not about living in deprivation with bare walls.
But don’t do it because you feel it is fashionable, or because it is on your ‘should do’ list. That makes it feel overwhelming and punitive.
You have to know why you are doing something and what you envision the reward. If always starts there.
I didn’t want to spend time on the maintenance of stuff. I want to spend my time hiking, hanging out and doing things I love. And there is the money aspect; again I would rather use the money for a meal out or a trip, than have a bunch of nick-knacks filling up my space.
De cluttering is a process; it is not a week-end project.
It will impact every area of your life. The connection to my wellness became more apparent as I delved further.
In the past I stuffed my fridge with loads of snack items. That led to mindless grazing. I had a lot of waste. Why did I think I needed 3 heads of romaine lettuce, a dozen steaks,a mega size jar of olives and a pack of 12 bell peppers for a household of 2? Or why freeze pounds and pounds of beans or make enough hummus for the next two years?
When we decided to keep a minimal fridge and pantry, our food budget significantly decreased and we eliminated (yes zero) waste.
The founder of The Thin Within workshops Joy Imboden Overstreet related her relationship with food to sharing something in common with a hoarder. One of fears, she explained, was that there wasn’t enough food, and that scarcity factor is why we overeat and why we stockpile.
I only buy foods I love, not the items I feel I ought to have…. so reminiscent of my diet days where I had a fridge full of foods and nothing I wanted to eat! As I live in a city I have a myriad of grocer shops and farmers markets within a 10 minutes of my house. Keeping my food supply limited has made it all more manageable.
I reexamined my wardrobe. In the past I had two requirements for clothing: it covered my fat and didn’t make me look too big. I had three categories of clothing: fat me, OK me, and aspirational me.
My new closet only holds clothes for the body I have NOW and the lifestyle I have NOW and I love them all. There is about 50% less, but they all have equal billing. When an item no longer works I immediately drop it off at the local thrift shift. Before I bring in another item I think about my choice. My clothes have to be ones I love, no compromises.
It feels wonderful to put on clothes that express who you are. It is the same relationship I have with food: I only put food I love in my mouth.
The covering my body with clothes I hated, and the shoveling of food I didn’t really want, is over!!
Minimalism refines everything and it is another layer in this journey of wellness. It is another way you take care of yourself and everything you have in your life is an expression of that.
Ready to let go off something and let something wonderful in to your life?
Thanks for reading,
Christina