Get rid of your stuff without putting a burden on someone or something else? Sign me up! Britt at Tiny Ambitions created a mindful decluttering challenge called Minimize in May. It spoke to me for a lot of reasons.
It’s important work. (I still have too much stuff).
It’s more manageable. (You can only fail the #MinsGame so many times before you start to feel like a decluttering flunkie.)
It aligns with my values. (I spend a lot of time worrying about the eco-side of decluttering.)
Now that the month is up, I figured I would share what I decluttered and why.
Ray-Ban Sunnies on Poshmark
The sunglasses were perfect. Just not on my face. So I put them on Poshmark to see what I could fetch for them. It’s true. I’m still on Poshmark. I am also starting to dabble in local reselling sites, like Bookoo and Offer Up. Even though Poshmark takes a fairly significant cut and keeps raising their shipping rates, I’m a pretty big fan of not having to plan sketchy meetups in the back of a neighborhood church parking lot.
While I probably could have sold them for more than what I did, they were a gift. There was no sunk cost for me to pointlessly ponder over. Instead, I was excited to have an opportunity to send these babies off to a home where they would be rocked all summer. Plus, sending another $60 to our mortgage didn’t hurt either. My one regret is that I didn’t get to see the buyer open the package. Well, all three packages, seeing as I sent the sunnies Russian nesting doll style in Amazon boxes. Better safe than sorry!
Garden Gear on Nextdoor
Nextdoor is equal parts judgemental and judgemental. I seriously don’t know how people spend any length of time on it. I can’t imagine it’s particular to my suburb, but maybe it is. People lose their cool over everything from teachers’ salaries to $14 robberies. Never mind the emergency alert that I got last week to let me know that someone thought they saw a turtle.
But I am learning that Nextdoor can be a pretty great tool for ditching household items. I posted a trellis that we weren’t using, and it was snatched up within a day. I definitely think that is something that I will be doing a lot more of as we clean out our garage and garden shed this summer, but you had better believe I’m taking notifications off my phone and my email.
Related Post: Values Aren’t Always Visible
A Rose in the Compost
I am not ready to minimize a lot of things. I am a sucker for sentiment. While memories certainly don’t take up residence in my things, I know it what it’s like to really miss something when you lose someone. That being said, I know part of why decluttering is so important is because it means being willing to do hard work. For me, hard work is deeply intertwined with sentiment. So even though this probably doesn’t quite fit the bill of the challenge Britt created, it was my biggest victory.
I composted a pink rose from my nana’s funeral.
While the ache is a little less, I still miss her every day. Whenever I’m really sad, I run my fingers over a necklace she gave me or flip through photos. The rose meant something, but it didn’t mean what I thought. She adored pink roses, but she had no connection to this one. Instead, I was simply holding onto it as a reminder of my sadness, of my loss. It was time to let it go.
More Thoughts on Minimalism
I have a long way to go when it comes to clutter. But I am taking steps in the right direction. I’m starting to really understand that minimalism isn’t about going without all things; it’s about going without the things that don’t matter. This challenge was the perfect way to kick off summer. I’m feeling accomplished and excited to get rid of much, much more.
So Tell Me..What have you parted with lately? What are you still holding onto?
Ya! It makes me so happy that you went head first into the challenge. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to part with that rose – good for you for recognizing that it didn’t symbolize what you thought it did.
I might have to make this challenge an annual occurrence! It’s been worthwhile to really think about where our stuff goes when we don’t have space for it in our lives anymore.
Thanks for doing the challenge, Penny – you’re awesome!
I hope you make it an annual occurrence. I think I could do it monthly. Or even weekly. Ugh. I don’t think I could be as sentimental each time, but I can definitely part with more things!
Good for you! Decluttering can be easy at times and way hard too! Apparently, having dead flowers in your house is a big fend shui no-no (according to J$’s post yesterday http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/financial-feng-shui/) so it sounds like you made the right decision. You could always use the compost to plant a pink rose bush, then you would have fresh pink roses all the time.
That’s the perfect logic! We actually do have pink roses already, so I think that your idea makes me feel even better about my choice.
I’ve been purging regularly as we have a baby on the way and no closets! The idea of minimalism really appeals to me, not having more than we use/need/brings us joy but I also like that it is individual for everyone. What my minimalism looks like is different from others. I have also started working on a capsule wardrobe, although will really have to wait until post baby. Wearing maternity clothes is like a capsule wardrobe lol and I like it. I’ve found Facebook groups a great way to either sell or pass on not needed items. It’s nice that someone will get use out of what no longer serves me:)
You are so right that maternity clothes is a capsule wardrobe. I’m currently trying to sort out how I feel about clothes that I haven’t worn in over a year now! It’s so surreal. Everything fits, but a lot of things don’t feel like me anymore. Congrats on the baby! Wishing you the very best and all the health and happiness in the world.
Next Door is such a great site. That’s where we got a whole bunch of baby-related items before our son was born. We got hand me downs, cloth diapers, toys and even a stroller we still use to this day. And with the neighborhood concept, we didn’t have to worry about driving far to pick them up since all the people them away were within a two mile radius from our place.
If we don’t have another kid in the next several years we are going back to Next Door and start giving them away.
I love that NextDoor has been so helpful for you. I like Bookoo a lot more because there is ZERO drama. Ha!
Well, neither the husband not I are what you would describe as minimalists. BUT. We have been steadily decluttering over the last few years. Both of us somehow got the “Great Depression mentality” gene from our grandparents. And we are both sentimental. We had a lot of stuff, lol! And we’ve made do with secondhand and hand-me-down stuff for most of our 38 years of marriage. And that was our choice, we don’t regret it. However, we finally admitted to ourselves that my late mother-in-law’s taste in furniture just isn’t ours…..and the furniture is not all that comfortable. So we’ve decided to sell all of the furniture in our home that was hers with the exception of the china cabinet and dining table. Those two items are the ones that hold meaning for my husband. We’re even selling the chairs that go with the table as we don’t find them comfortable. Once we made that decision, we did something very uncharacteristic for us. We went out, we found furniture that fit us, is comfortable and is our style. And we bought it. I have a lovely leather sectional sofa with clean simple lines being delivered in a week with a ottoman. Also a small scale, simple lined rocker, swivel recliner that fits the hubs perfectly. A lot of furniture is leaving, very little is coming in. So, even though it wasn’t a frugal choice, it did result in minimizing in May, lol! We kept the things that mattered to the hubs and let go of the things that didn’t. I’ve got a few things that I’ve realised don’t really matter to me any more that will be leaving as well. I realised that sometimes you become so habituated to thinking that something matters to you that you never think to periodically check in with yourself to see if that’s still true. Humans are weird. Right?
Sometimes minimizing is the opposite of frugal, but I think frugality might allow us to let go and replace if that makes sense. I hope you enjoy your new additions. It sounds like a perfect (and perfectly comfy!) choice!
I hope we do too! We wrestled with the decision for a good while. The turning point, I believe, came one night while we were watching tv and realized that we’d both been sitting on the floor with our backs against the sofa instead of sitting ON the sofa for a few nights in a row, lol! Doesn’t do you a bit of good to have a house full of furniture that you don’t sit on, right? And at 58 and 60, sitting on the floor just ain’t as comfortable as it was a few years back!
I just finished moving into a new place post-divorce. I’m still unpacking and settling in. 90% of my stuff has been in boxes for nearly 2 years, and once I realized that fact I figured I didn’t need most of it, right?
Going through it is a challenge to say the least. I’m an only child and my mother was a pack rat – for example, she kept every piece of paper I brought home from school K-12, I’m not joking. She gave it to me in boxes a few weeks after the wedding. I kept 1 thing (my final Kindergarten report card was hilarious) an burned the rest.
But some of the stuff I have now is old family stuff from, oh, I dunno, the past 100-150 years of family history? I have no siblings to share it with, and some of it is historical Americana. Like legitimate stuff the National Park Service or local historical society might be interested in. I can’t throw it out, of course, but I have minimal storage where I’m at now and I need to pack a lot of it back up and what good does it do there? Is it safe or is it going to get ruined? It is going to be very difficult to manage this as, like you, I lean toward sentimental.
Current decluttering: in May I sold a leather recliner, a fruit press (wine making), and a purse I wasn’t using and made $345. Carload of stuff to donations. Lots of cardboard recycling. We’ll see what happens in June.
I am an only child also, and I feel you so hard on this. Wow. It’s like it is my responsibility to hold onto all the stuff (even if no one really wants it).
The sentimental and nostalgia issues are the ones I fight with. My wife would love it if I tossed out my picture album, with all my old girlfriends from high school and early 20s. Just can’t do it. Even things I made as child in wood shop and metal shop. I mean it only comes down to a couple of boxes I never go through, but it’s hard to let it go when you’re living over 2500 miles from where you grew up.
I still live a stone’s throw away from where I grew up, and I think you’re right, Brent. It’s easier because I can revisit. Hmm. I hadn’t considered that before!
I often sing the song “Let it Go!” when I am decluttering. I have the same issue with sentiment, and it’s so helpful to remind myself that I will still love and remember my mom even if I don’t have every note she ever wrote me (for example). I stick all of them in one big box and then pick my favorites (this is a work in progress, but I’ve done this with lots of sentimental things). Letting go is so hard in the moment but so worth it in the day to day when the house is easier to clean.
Amen to the house being easier to clean! That is such a motivator for me. Get rid of all the things!
My slow de-cluttering post-relationship is going very slowly. I have gotten rid of some digital clutter, but not yet all of the photos of her from my phone. Even though I’ve printed them off and am absolutely glad I’m not dating her anymore. Humans are funny.
I still feel overwhelmed by my room and am having a hard time getting it into good condition. Some stuff definitely needs to go and I need to organize the space, but the project feels too big. It’s silly. I live in a relatively small amount of space and it would feel nicer if I made it less cramped. But to tackle it feels too big. Maybe one box can be handled today.