I make a good a living and have all the comforts I could ever want or need. I have a large home that I share with my partner, Shirley and a rotating crowd of our own kids, international students, and extended family. But there has been something that has been chewing at me that makes me feel unsatisfied.
Then, I stumbled across a book entitled The More of Less, by Joshua Becker. And a few minutes into the book, I realized that we I have been missing is having less. I have some much stuff that I spend too much time trying to find things; organizing and storing it. And because of this, I have made the decision to start Thinning Down My Stuff. My objective is to make my life simpler.
This is going to be a long journey, so I thought it would be helpful to record the process.
For my first day of this concerted effort, I tackled the smallest room in the house: a room we call the Wine Cellar, but which is actually a narrow room with a wall of built in cupboards, and a few wine racks. The cupboards are mainly filled with holiday decorations for various seasons, as well as an area where we store emergency food supplies..
My effort started with filling the wooden wine racks with bottles that were in boxes in the floor. I filled all the empty slots and then consolidated the remaining bottles to two wine cases. There were then neatly stacked next to the rack.
Next, I put away the remainder of the Christmas boxes for our Christmas Village. This is a series of buildings, people and trees that Shirley has been collecting for nearly 30 years. This is a very special collection that we put up the day after Thanksgiving and stays in our family room until early February. When it comes to simplifying, the village will be one of those things we choose to hold on to because of how meaningful it is and how many people get joy out of seeing it each year.
As I went through other cupboards, I discovered an old comforter that we had on our bed perhaps 8 years ago. After conferring with Shirley, we decided there was no reason to hold on to this, so the comforter and the other parts of its linen set become the first items we will give away as a part of our simplification effort.
It's a small start, but we now have a completely organized storage room.
