The next step towards our new adventure is culling our possessions Aka getting rid of junk. We really want to live a small sustainable lifestyle so getting rid of things are necessary. Some choices are easy to make like we really don't need the ginormous couch, love seat, chair combo, especially since I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor anyway. However when it comes to personal items such as clothing, keepsakes, collectables, the kids old school papers and mementos is where it becomes harder. I know you think you need to keep the prom dress you had or that menu from your first date but believe me it's the memory you hold dear not the items you keep locked in a box that you pull out and look at once every 6 months. Purging myself of these unwanted items was a lot easier for me than I thought (my husband not so much). His collectables are still a "work in progress" but since we still have time I'm not pushing insanely hard. All my children's keepsakes were given to them with the exception of photo albums. I still like to trot down memory lane once in a while but I don't need a box full of stuff to do it. Picture will suffice. Plus one box per child X 4 is a lot! With my collectables I gave serious thought if I could do without it? Some stuff stayed but most went. Now to clothing I followed Project 333. 33 items for 3 months! Some clothing went to Goodwill straight away but anything I was unsure about was put in a box in the back of the closet under other boxes. I figured if I thought I wanted an item bad enough it would be worth digging for. Three months later whatever wasn't pulled back out of the box out of necessity was also donated. Clothing wasn't the hardest , it was the jewelry. I love me a awesome pair of funky earrings! So much so I felt like the Imelda Marcos of earrings but what I realized is that I always seem to go to the same few pairs. It hasn't been easy, there were some tears shed or at least a few sighs but I am super proud of us for this small accomplishment. So my best piece of advice to you is GO FOR IT!!!
"The best thing in life to hold onto is each other" ~~ Audrey Hepburn
