Finding Me

I've been trying to minimize my wardrobe for the past two years, and while I definitely have made huge progress, I've also kept a bunch of "Maybe" clothes in a separate closet for a while. Well, yesterday I was inspired to go through them once and for all and behold, got rid of another two bags of clothes. Considering how much I've already downsized my wardrobe, this is a big deal. Two bags and a little extra! I was left with a closet of things I truly love to wear and I, well, love it. I won't lie, there's a couple items sitting down in those entryway bags that I'm tempted to unearth and put back in my closet, but it's more of a "I might want to wear this" rather than a "I love that item." Definitely need to get them out of the house as soon as possible before I change my mind. It's worth it though to open my closet and see this: I just need to find a better way to store the "summer only" it...

I may have been quiet on here for the past week or so, but I've been busy decluttering. I've gone right back into another round of The Minimalism Game after doing my first ever complete run-through last month. I'm hoping to continue doing the Game until we pack and move. I can see how some people would prefer to just organically remove items as they come across them, but having a hard number target helps me and pushes me to really reconsider what I "need" or even truly want in my life. I've also been doing Joshua Becker's decluttered course, which is pretty great too. He goes room by room every week.  So far it's been car, living room, dining room, and master bedroom, all "easy" areas for me and I honestly haven't removed much so far.  (My pain points are definitely clothes and my home office. They're both much  better than they were but definitely not where I want to be yet. Lessons Learned from Week Two: Nothing except t...

Although I've been fighting off a stomach bug (with varying degrees of success) since Saturday, I did manage to declutter my makeup collection, which was (and probably still is) ridiculously vast considering I wear makeup about once a month (#TelecommuterLife). When I piled it all up in one place a la KonMari I was pretty astounded. Nine eyeshadow palettes. Once again, I wear makeup maybe once a month . Witness: It actually doesn't look like much in this picture, but trust me - the herd needed to be thinned. So I went through, and got it down quite a bit: Left is discard, right is keep. A lot of the left is boxes, but there was plenty of actual makeup too, including four palettes, so I'm pretty happy with the result. One of those times where I can feel that I haven't hit the "click point" yet though. I'll definitely need to go through again but for now, mission accomplished!

Well, this week was just crazy at work, so didn't get as hardcore as I hoped, however I really decluttered the linen closet (we had WAAAAAAY too many sheets and towels for two people!) and started going through memorabilia.  The linen closet looks a lot better but otherwise it's hard to see a difference despite everything I decluttered. I can't wait until Spring when I can put out the large items I want to give away for free! (I'm just going to put them in the yard, they should get scooped up quickly.) (And yes, although linens don't count towards the Two Bags project, it was some of the last of the easy, low-hanging fruit. I've been minimizing for about two years now so it gets tougher and tougher.) Insights this week: I'm still afraid to tackle makeup or clothes despite the fact that I wear makeup maybe once a month and the same 20 or so items of clothing over and over. Notebooks are also a problem.  Memorabilia is easier to declutter than I thou...