Progression: Pack Rat ---> Wanna be sort of minimalist

Okay, AndreaClaire is the inspiration for this post. I'd been tossing it around in my brain for a while and yesterday's post was the first part of that thought process. AndreaClaire said:

I need you to come over and teach me to toss sh!t out. Seriously. I could toss everything in my storage room right now without looking at it and I'd have no idea what I was missing! 

I was wondering how I went from needing to keep everything to feeling like I could let a whole lot of stuff go.





There were a few things that helped...Laura's week 4 post gave me a bunch of questions that I find very helpful (they also showed up in this week's post! Imagine that!).

1.  Can I afford, in terms of space, to keep this item?
2.  Could the space that this item takes up be put to better use?
3.  What am I saying NO to in order to say YES to this item?
4.  What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen if I get rid of this item?

I also thought about why I was keeping things, but I didn't really come up with anything. I have a list of questions from somewhere else (maybe FlyLady?) and one of them is something along the lines does this item make me feel guilty or unhappy. I'm better at identifying what I feel about things which has led me to feel better about getting rid of things.

Oh, and my little daydream that didn't go away for a few months about moving away to a far away land, that helps me decide...I ask myself if it's something I'd have to take with me if we moved and could only take a few things and if the answer is no, well, then it's gone.

And thinking that maybe everything in our storage unit was garbage and realizing that I don't care about much of it made me think that I might feel the same way about our other stuff. I've gotten rid of as much stuff this week as I usually do in about six weeks...it's unbelievable.

Maybe in a few weeks we'll notice a significant difference in our house...

Fingers crossed!