have nothing in my house that I do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful

I have allot of clutter around me, and I have a terrible time throwing anything away. I always think, “I could use that someday”, or figure that as soon as I throw it away, I’ll find a use for it. I’m mostly surrounded by paper and fabric. I’m going to start going through things and throwing out stuff I don’t need anymore, like bank statements from 8 years ago. :p

As the new house slowly moves toward completion, I occasionally find myself imagining how I want to live in that space. It’s a great way to urge myself forward on this and several other goals related to the quantity and quality of the stuff I’ll include in my life.

I imagine moving in slowly, perhaps over the course of a month, during which time I move only the things that are useful and/or beautiful. Nothing more. I imagine that there might be a few things that I will not be sure about, so I hold off moving them until I am sure.

I don’t know if I will have the luxury of a slow move. But if I do, I hope I can be as methodical as I imagine. Thinking about this goal is helping it seem possible, realistic, and VERY appealing! What a relief to get rid of so many things I’ve carried with me because for a variety of reasons I felt like I “had to.” No more!

but not beautiful. I got rid of an area rug that we’ve had for 2 years. Got it free off Craigslist for using in this apartment. I never really liked it—more like tolerated it. It was in the kids’ room. Offered it back on Craigslist and also on freecycle. Had a lot of responses on both and it’s gone tonight!! It was a kind of purplish/blue color with the edging coming off one side.
Now the kids have an antique braided rug instead and one son and I like it much more.

gives me great hope for this goal. I must confess to a frustration, though. I feel dedicated to this goal. But I am not the only person who will be living in the house. I’m estimating that I am the only one of the four of us who is really excited about this opportunity. It’s a little discouraging.

What I’m telling myself, however, is that if I am courageous enough to be as drastic with my self-discipline as will be required to achieve the goal with my own possessions, then perhaps others will be inspired, at least to some degree?! Maybe they will notice how beautiful the spaces that are essentially “mine” to manage have become? I am trying to be hopeful! I will not give up. But I may have to accept that others do not share my goal in their spaces.

I’m in the mood to sort through more stuff. In the last few weeks, I’ve begun to dream of how beautiful this space could be with a few touches – new curtains, our artwork properly framed, and eventually additional pieces of furniture. As a lover of the site Etsy, I dream of purchasing a few key pieces from there – especially little things: pot holders, an end table, and serving platters.

Eventually, I need another bookcase; oh sign, I feel as though I’ve reached the core of my library which is comprised of the books which I hold dear and want to have available at any moment. I just wish there was one book case less of them.

As I sit in front of my fire, I realise I have condensed all my possessions again. This time, I only have half a room of furniture, books and possessions. All that’s left are 6 boxes, some clothing and camping gear (which I’m taking with me). I did it in 2 weeks!

I made $130 on a garage sale and donated a trailer load of stuff to charity.

Got rid of 4 chairs, 2 bookcases, an ugly-ass credenza my husband rescued from an office dumpster, and our old kitchenette set. They wouldn’t take my big ugly chair-and-a-half, so that may end up out on the trash pile. It sure ain’t moving with us.

All cleaned out….making progress….

This is a tough but crucial goal. Had trimmed the fat when moved out of my place in London but since then continued to accumulate stuff- lots of it beautiful and or useful to be fair but still…

Need to sort out all my crap and trim down again before moving back to LDN.

I’ve had a several stacks of magazines waiting for me to go through. I went through all of them and threw them away over the last two days….

Tomorrow I will finish the pile in the corner of my room….