Hoarder to Minimalist
I moved to our new home in 2013 without a job. My goal was to find a job once summer was over and enjoy unpacking. I fell into a job only 1 month after I left Ottawa on a train.
Being DINKs (double income no kids) my guy and I already had too much an weren't yet 30 years old. Something needed to change.
In that short month off I managed to get to our local library and happened by a book... "it's all too much" but Peter Walsh. This was the start of my less is more journey. This book is not organization which is what I thought I needed.. I was so wrong. It was everything I needed without knowing. It talks about why you keep things (all the unreasonable ways to talk yourself into justifying senseless behaviour) and teaches you how to break free of that reasoning and habits which are effecting you negatively.
First and foremost: I am the environment that surrounds me. I am the mess and chaos internally as you see it outwardly. I have learned that this process is necessary for my #mentalhealth and assume it is for my less than 2 year old girl as well.
In the last 4 years I have said goodbye to more than I could have imagined. I have determined that open space (like enough for me to do yoga) is a minimum in every room. I regularly employ a finite amount of space in my house I'm willing to give an item. The DVDs get only a small bookcase.. Then my little girl came along and let me say that books case is full of kid books. Her books get that space in an instant.
My mental state continually improves as I don't struggle to keep up as badly. I am less of a failure when there is less to maintain; less laundry; less toys to be out away until I can sweep; you get the idea.
My title for this is a little over dramatic although I tend to allow for some harmless over exaggeration in my life. I hope I wasn't ever as bad as people you see on TV but I know my thought process was broken.
As we finished wallpaper in our bedroom this weekend and I came home to a room with an unmade bed for the first time in probably a week (keeping to any routine for a rollercoaster is very hard) I realized I cherish the blank walls where no art lives and I cherish the blankness of a made bed. The empty makes me full. The less fills my soul where having more crushed me into a state of hopelessness.
My stuff is less. I hope you read that book.. It changed my life.