21 days of minimalism or negative 231 things

Howdy, neighbors! (Wilson from Home Improvement, anyone?) I have a few things in the blog pipeline, but this minimalism thing is at the forefront. You might be tired of hearing about this little adventure, but I'm not tired of talking about it. Check back in May if you can't take anymore of these shenanigans.

I have purged 231 things and it feels ah-mazing. Things started getting a little difficult in the 'teens' days, but now I think I have started an avalanche of sorts.

Until last night, I was getting rid of nicknacks, clutter, nail polish, unused beauty goop, books, dusty craft supplies, and the like. Last night, though, I had a backlog of 4 days and decided to dive into my sentimental stashes. Yikes. It was difficult at first, but I started realizing that these things didn't add anything to me or my memories. I kept only the most important things: letters from Henry, a couple of cards from my dad, and pictures. The rest of it: ticket stubs, middle school notes, etc. all went away. I don't need the ticket stubs to remind me of how much fun I had in high school. The movie was hardly the point (no no no, I watched the movie, I just liked hanging out with friends and the movie was the catalyst... jeeze). Henry thinks this part is some form of self-torture, but I thought it was really liberating. These sentimental things must not be that important if I am letting them gather very literal piles of dust. I'd rather have a few very important things displayed prominently than boxes of things hidden away. Also, I couldn't remember why I kept at least half of the things in the box I went through last night.

I was feeling a little conflicted last night, but I found these minimalist blogs to be very very helpful:

http://www.theminimalists.com/sentimental/

and

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/how-to-simplify-your-stuff-and-honor-your-memories/

In the comments of my last post, a friend of mine gave some sage advice: "Don't keep things just to keep things and don't get rid of things just to get rid of things." This was really valuable advice yesterday. I have a few things that are so important to me and I want to be able to display those all the time. To do that, I need to get rid of the less meaningful things taking up that space. 

After last nights catch-up, I have this itch to keep going. It's possible I'll finish the 463 things before the end of the month. I'm on a roll now...