Welcome!

Welcome! My name is Pip, and this is my new blog on embracing the minimalist lifestyle. I reached a breaking point about a year ago - I had been living in my largest ever home (3 bedroom) for the longest amount of time (10 years) in my life and although I was not a hoarder by ANY means, the clutter and stuff had accumulated.

The first step was reading Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up." I know, I  know, we've ALL read it, but it really helped.

It just really changed my thinking and was what I needed to get started.  The "All or Nothing" approach and going by category instead of space just made sense to me. Since it was winter with not much to do, I dove in.

First it was the shoes:

Before:

After:

Then it was all of the other clothes, purses, hats, and books (which was especially difficult for this bibliophile but the fact that the local animal shelter was accepting donations for their annual book sale to raise money helped a lot). I managed to get rid of a  LOT of stuff, but not only did I stop at the "Books" category, other crap  started piling up again, so this winter I started again.

This time I admittedly went against KonMari and did a space instead of a category, but it was a space that had been bothering me for years - the office closet. Now, it's not a particularly huge closet, but I had managed to absolutely CRAM it full of stuff, mostly triathlon-related gear and clothing. (I have a definite problem with over-buying training clothes, but that's another story for another time.)

    

I've managed to get it down to one last little boxful and a chair of items that are still on the "maybe" list. In addition, I've committed to 1.) Throwing out one item a day, MINIMUM (it's usually been more lately) and 2.) Taking a page from the President's Executive Order and throwing out two items for every new item I bring in.

So, while I've stepped away from the hardcore KonMari method from now (although I still use the "does it bring joy" method of deciding whether to keep something), I am excited to see where this journey takes me. (And perhaps sometime in the future be ready to discuss why I'm so keen on paring down my belongings.)