Fresh starts!

I don’t really make resolutions.  I find that they just add more pressure to my life, and I like making goals and working towards them rather than just saying “I will eat more healthily”.

So instead of just saying “I will live more minimally in 2014” I have set ourselves the task of getting rid of our rented storage space.  I am giving myself the wiggle room that we may move the rest of our stuff into a smaller storage space, and then continue our process and our progress into 2015.  But we will definitely be ridding ourself of stuff.

So far so good with keeping to the more minimal lifestyle on the retail front.  We ventured out on Boxing Day and managed to come back with just what we needed — a tray for the sitting area to make an ottoman into a coffee table, plus an HTMI cord so we could connect my laptop with the TV and watch videos (went through the whole Harry Potter canon during the holidays). I even bought some new bras, and came home and tossed my old ones.  There just isn’t space to save old AnyThing, if we get acquire  new, we have to shed something.

Today I got another little kick in the pants reminder to keep downsizing.  My twice-weekly email from Houzz included some handy tips for editing belongings.

The author mentioned one of my bugbears.  I am not looking forward to editing family pictures.  We used to have so many walls we could just toss pictures of grandparents and ancestors, so many surfaces to hold stiffly-posed portraits and spontaneous snap shots.

She wisely suggests editing:

 I took all of my family pictures out of albums and off the walls, and then organized them by year, starting in 1972 when Mike and I were married, and moving through our 40th wedding anniversary. Then I picked my absolute favorites and built a new single album, simply entitled “The First 40 Years.” I placed the rest of the pictures in clearly marked envelopes that went into a single large plastic bin. (Plastic bins are a downsizer’s best friend.)

This is a big project.  I am not looking forward to taking it on, but will make a start by sorting through our pictures for family shots and putting them aside.  Hopefully someone will find a quick and inexpensive way to digitize the photo library by the time I get around to it.

Unfortunately, the pictures don’t take up a great deal of room.  Fortunately the stuff that does take up a lot of room is easier to get rid of.  And we have a goal to work towards — no more expensive rental storage.  As this other excellent guide to de-cluttering says,

Begin with the end in mind. Think about how you want your home to be. Browse through the ideabooks you’ve already created and look for themes. Only after you’re clear what you’re shooting for should you begin to purge