simplify my life

I have gone through almost everything i own and sent things on their way to Goodwill. Its amazing how much better i feel, i would have never thought how much it would have centered me. I feel like there is so much more that i care about, once i removed all this stuff from my surrounds. I also discovered that my apartment is huge! I need a smaller place, which i would have never thought.

I feel like I am making one excuse after another in not achieving this goal. What I have accomplished is so miniscule it doesn’t seem worth posting. Next week the kids go back to school and perhaps my focus will be better with this. However I am moving on other parts of my life. I have begun writing again, started volunteering doing some photography work, and took the kids to COSI for a fun day. So the overall picture is better than it used to be.

Complications in life make it suck

I met a friend who inspired me to give up ALL animal products, driving my car, and watching television. I started riding my bike to work and back (10 miles each way). I knew him for three weeks before he left for a year long bike tour of Europe. I decided to join him halfway through the trip. I had no money and had only started riding a bike. I was able to save money and get in shape by not buying anything, working two jobs and riding to work everyday for 4 months. Additionally I had a yard sale and gave away all of the things I didn’t need in life.

We met up in Bad Kreuznach Germany, and I rode 60 miles the first day! We camped in a tent EVERY NIGHT, ate Muesli cereal with soymilk for the entire last month of the trip to save money. We bathed in the pristine lakes in Sweden and Norway (that’s also where we got our water) and when clean lakes were not available, our water source was gas stations. We carried what we needed with us in bags on our bike. I can’t wait to do this again, it was an extreme way to simplify my life and it is so hard living “normal” life again. We all take so many this for granted, and we are so spoiled.

So I have made tons of progress with this. Mostly because I am taking a lot of stuff to the apartment I am moving into next week for school. But I have gathered up a lot lot lot of stuff to donate. And have thrown a lot away. So I will totally be finished with this goal by next Friday. Because yeah… that’s when I’m moving and so I sort of have to be.

Well… I’ve run into yet another delay. And the self challenge deadline is looming in the near future. Yikes! This week was a fair week. I have spent the entire week running in circles being that my kids are involved in 4H. Between work and the fair my house has taken a spin downward. It’s even more disorganized!

Today I am staying home for part of the day to conquer the mess that is growing into full fledged chaos. sighs

So i must admit I probably have alot of stuff for someone my age. I have decided, due to a major life change, that I need to understand what I want and what I need. Things are getting better and I am donating a great deal of the things that I no longer need. My list of things that I can live without mainly has to do with stuff that I no longer use. You don’t realize how much of what you have you dont actually need.

i would love to begin simplifying my life and really letting go of things i don’t need, like having so many clothes.

the only things i really need are things that give me memories and remind me of who i am.

i think getting rid of material excess will clear my mind a little.

or i need to organize.

I’ve finally started working on this. The secret is to make it a really big mess in the process of cleaning so you can’t stand seeing it that way. :P But this is good. I’ve thrown away stuff, I have put stuff that I can donate aside in a separate pile, I’m organizing things. This is good.

Well last week I did finally did get more accomplished and I recruited my kids to help! It made a big difference in a day’s time.

The one is tackling the back porch. He’s building a lid for an ancient wood crate I have to shelter the barn boots. This way we don’t have to bring them tracking in mud to the mud room making more room in there and the back porch will look nice in the process. Convenience, more space, and visual appeal all in one!

The youngest is going through all the “kid” movies that I can’t bring myself to get rid of due to they belonged to all of them. He is being harsh in the project empting out nearly the entire cabinet of old movies. I promise to not look into the bag and just deliver it to the used movie/cd store. This will be a huge challenge for me!

The middle one is tackling the day to day cleaning for me so I don’t use this to procrastinate and not accomplish my goal. He grumbles a bit but also recalls how free we felt when we were away on vacation and wants to bring it home.

Now as for me, I jumped on the job I have hated the most. The office. I have made huge headway in it but still have to conquer a lot. We have two computers in there and I did reformat one as I worked on the paper files. Now I have the other to clean up. I also bought an external hardrive so we can put all graphic programs and games there then connect the two pc’s to it. This is so we save room on our computers and not try to shove one another off the computer we want.

I have a front living room that contains the piano and a small tv and some games. We rarely use this space anymore. I am considering moving all of my paints and crafts to that room to create an “art room”.Rather than stuffing all of that in the office as well. Anyone who shows up to my house comes straight to the backdoor anyway which accesses the family room. I don’t know yet though. I have used this room as my reading room in the winter too. Having all of my art supplies there may feel cluttered.