"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
Stephen Covey

31 January 2011

Paring Down - Week 4


Ok, so our study wasn't quite this bad. Well at least not this obviously bad. We're better at hiding disorganization in unorganized files, "To File" boxes, and paper bags marked "Recycle," "Shred," or "Sort." But it's just a disguise, because our paper clutter is bad, has always been bad. Because I hate this part of organization. Sorting paper requires hours of work to get visible results. I'd rather wash the dishes. But I did manage to get through some of our files this week, resulting in a couple bags of recycling. I decided that counting them individually would be kind of cheating, so I just counted the bags, resulting in this week's total of:

1 unworking fan
89 office supplies
6 magazines
12 books
2 bags of paper

So my total for the week is 110 things, making my total for the month of January 423 things. I hit my goal! (And I didn't even get to every room of the house.) I feel good about that. But what's unsatisfying is that it only made me realized more clearly how many unused and useless things we keep in our home. 423 things gone and probably no one would notice except for Ryan, and maybe visitors who have poked around in our cupboards ;-) These uneccesary things only clutter our lives and take time away from things that really matter. Though we'll never live like this (thanks for the interesting article Teal), I do want to continue to take small steps towards getting rid of things that aren't regularly used and minimizing the constant flow of "stuff" through our home.

If you're interested in more minimal living, check out these blogs I've found helpful:
Rowdy Kittens
Becoming Minimalist
Simpler Living (this post is especially funny)
Miss Minimalist

2 comments:

  1. nice work!

    the family in the article is pretty extreme - i'm not sure that, if i had kids, i'd be able to throw away most of their artwork, even if i had scanned copies of it - it's not the same!!

    still, thought provoking.

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  2. Wow! What a great accomplishment! I am thinking that I need some type of goal like this as Will and I start thinking about moving from Eugene. You have certainly got me thinking :)

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