Keeping Less, Living More, Part 1: Breakthrough

Topics: My Life, Trying Stuff

Since I returned from vaca­tion on July 5th I’ve been a nearly-crazy-Kate about get­ting rid of things.  Though I am not sure what trig­gered my new clar­ity, I do know I can no longer han­dle excess stuff… tan­gi­ble stuff, paper stuff, emo­tional stuff, unnec­es­sary stuff.  To be frank, I can barely han­dle the nec­es­sary stuff.

It started in our mas­ter bath­room and spread to our mas­ter bed­room and then to our closet.  I removed unnec­es­sary items from the shower as well as the coun­ter­top, stream­lined under-sink stor­age, recy­cled empty bot­tles, and dis­posed of a large bag of trash.  I cor­ralled our dirty clothes into six sorters: whites, darks, brights, jeans, tow­els, and mis­cel­la­neous, and removed them from our mas­ter bed­room.  I touched every item of cloth­ing in our closet and removed a quar­ter of my clothes to donate to the local thrift store.

As this orga­ni­za­tion obses­sion began to extend beyond our home and into my work­place, I felt out of con­trol.  The moti­va­tion I felt to sim­plify my life and our home was real, but I wanted to iden­tify its source.  I read from books I love, lis­tened to music, stayed up think­ing, talked with Daniel, debated with my mom, and came up with­some ideas:

  • The world is, as is arguably almost always the case, out of con­trol.  My life is one thing I can, for the most part, control.
  • The large cities we vis­ited on our trip over­whelmed me and reminded me to delight in the sim­ple things.
  • The post-vacation exhaus­tion reminded of fibromyal­gia flares which reminded me that excess stuff over­whelms me.

While I am not sure I’ve iden­ti­fied the source for my moti­va­tion, I do know I’ve real­ized some­thing life changing.

A few days ago, as I stood in our mas­ter bath­room, I got to thinking…

I wouldn’t use our bath­room any more if it were larger, if it were a dif­fer­ent color, or if it had a larger closet.  This is what I have, and I don’t want stuff that doesn’t mat­ter dis­tract­ing me from peo­ple and things that do.

I know it is ridicu­lously sim­ple, and it may not strike a chord with you, but it has changed my life.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not an advo­cate for abstain­ing from the plea­sures of life and deny­ing your­self com­fort.  In fact, I’m quite the oppo­site.  I like to save (time or money) on those things that don’t mat­ter so I can splurge on the things that do. I know there is an art to keep­ing only what you need and what you love, and free­ing your­self from excess.  I know that such an art opens room in your home, in your mind, and in your heart.

You see, I am an advo­cate for keep­ing less, and liv­ing more.  And I know mas­ter­ing this art will take a lifetime.

Notice I didn’t say, keep­ing less, and doing more.  Because I’m not, doing more, that is.  In fact, I’m doing less.  I’m doing more of what I love.  More of what mat­ters.  More of what is good and wor­thy of my time.  I am doing less of what I feel oblig­ated to do, less shop­ping, less eat­ing, less sleep­ing, and less noth­ing.  I am more close to my loved ones, more relaxed at the end of the day, and more aware of my Heav­enly Father’s hand in my life.  And, most notably, I feel there is less left undone.

Over the next few weeks I will share the lessons I learn as I con­tinue to strive to keep less, and live more.  I chal­lenge you to join me.  Start by iden­ti­fy­ing three ways you can keep less, and live more.

Existing Comments

    Comment by Karen on August 26, 2009 @ 3:26 am

    I’m with you all the way on this. I’ve started toss­ing one item a day in an attempt to clear the use­less clut­ter.
    Have you ever writ­ten about the guilt that goes along with call­ing in sick when you’re laid low with fibromyal­gia and back pain. I’m sit­ting here in a funk because I’ve felt ter­ri­ble for days (hav­ing a cer­vi­cal spinal epidural injec­tion tomor­row), but hes­i­tate to take a sick day. Toxic guilt?

    Comment by Micaela on August 26, 2009 @ 7:21 am

    I love this post! I have seri­ously been doing this for the past cou­ple of weeks and I have to say that I wake up hap­pier see­ing a room that is less clut­tered. I think that my rea­son for doing this is that I am tired of apart­ment liv­ing. 3 kids in 2 bed­rooms is about to do me in. Peo­ple around me keep mov­ing out but not me. I am ready to change my sur­round­ings and I guess that this is the only way for me to do that right now.

    How do I plan on keep­ing less and liv­ing more? When I am in con­trol of my house (i.e. clean, healthy food on the table, happy kids) liv­ing seems less forced. I think that my biggest enemy in get­ting this accom­plised it time I sepnd at the com­puter. So my first plan of action is to spend less time on the Inter­net. Not sure if this is where you are going with this but inorder to live more I have to step away from the com­puter. I’ll let you know how that goes :)

    Thanks for get­ting me think­ing this morn­ing. Good luck today.

    Comment by Rochelle on August 26, 2009 @ 9:30 am

    Inter­est­ing thoughts on this. I always appre­ci­ate hear­ing your insights!

    Comment by Tami Stackelhouse on August 27, 2009 @ 12:01 am

    As always, I love your posts & thoughts, Kate! I can so relate to what you’re say­ing here. I have been going through a phase like this too. Not just clean­ing, but think­ing about what’s really important.

    For me, clut­ter is a destroyer of peace. Mess is chaos. Sim­ple things are just calm­ing to my brain… and my brain is over­whelmed right now. Over­whelmed with begin­ning a new busi­ness, keep­ing up with house­hold stuff, stay­ing on top of my fibro (which has been mostly held at bay these days!), help­ing my dad with his art business…

    On a fun note, los­ing 40 pounds helps with thin­ning out the closet! =) Of course, now I need clothes that fit — an excuse to go shop­ping! Since I have another 70 pounds to go, I’m shop­ping at Good­will. My rule is that the bags I take TO Good­will MUST be more than what I take home FROM Goodwill. =)

    It’s SO good to have you back, Kate, and to hear what’s been run­ning around in your brain while you’ve been away. {hug}

    Comment by Tricia on August 27, 2009 @ 10:34 am

    I feel bet­ter when things are neat and tidy and unclut­tered. I feel more relaxed, which we need with fibromyal­gia. I am like you, I like to save on those things that don’t mat­ter so I can splurge on the things that do.

    I hope you are doing well and hav­ing some fun now that your are back from your vaca­tion. Summer’s almost over, we need the heat. ;)

    Comment by Benia on September 2, 2009 @ 10:26 am

    Great post! My hus­band and I have always prac­ticed a low-clutter way of liv­ing. Peo­ple come over and ask us if we just moved in because we don’t have stuff all over the place (when it’s clean). It takes peri­odic reeval­u­a­tions of your stuff, though, like going through the stor­age areas and being frank about whether you really need some­thing you haven’t touched in years.

    In my closet and dressers, I always put my fresh laun­dry on one side, so the items I just don’t choose very much kind of fil­ter toward the other side. When it’s time to donate, I just go right to that end and start removing.

    I recently moved into a new desk both at home and at work, which is a great oppor­tu­nity to sift through the trin­kets and dust col­lec­tors and give them away or toss them out. We went through our book­shelves and donated about 20 or so books to our local library. What­ever they don’t use, they sell for donations.

    Going through all those notes and reminders with unfin­ished busi­ness is a tough one for me. I HATE unfin­ished busi­ness, but I tend to jot things down every­where, while it’s still on my mind, which means I have “started” projects all over the place. At work, I use two notepads and review it daily. Some­times I con­sol­i­date to a new sheet, if most of the stuff is already crossed out. My inbox is always reviewed at least weekly, to keep fin­ished items filed away or deleted.

    I hate shop­ping. For neces­si­ties, I order from drugstore.com. I go through ShopDis­cover and use my Dis­cover card for a 10% cash­back bonus (or through Ebates for a 6% “e-bate”). When­ever I need some­thing I can order online, I check Ebates or ShopDis­cover and get my money’s worth. Cloth­ing and shoes I have to try on, so I save those tasks for when I need to stock up, and then bring my coupons or deals and buy a lot at once (if I can). Then I’m good for a while.

    Freecy­cling in your com­mu­nity, dona­tions to var­i­ous char­i­ties (espe­cially the ones that pick stuff up), or give­aways to friends, fam­ily, or cowork­ers are all great ways to get rid of things that still have use, but have been replaced, out­grown, or oth­er­wise remain unused by yourself.

    Comment by Andy on October 5, 2009 @ 11:10 am

    I too have noticed that if I have every­thing taken care of with the house then my fibromyal­gia flares don’t take over my life as much. I am anti-clutter as well, after hav­ing moved last year and thrown out and donated every­thing but fur­ni­ture. I’ve even begun scan­ning all papers and pho­tos into the com­puter so I don’t have those hang­ing around either. I wanted to rec­om­mend to you and your read­ers the best thing I’ve found for stiff morn­ings is my Chili­Pad — a mat­tress pad that lets you cool down (or heat up) your bed, mine lets me set any tem­per­a­ture between 46 and 118 degrees. It helps with pain and I have been get­ting more sleep because I’m not woken up by pain as eas­ily. Hope this helps!

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