The Minimalist Journey - Why do we keep what we keep?

Minimalism is not just about throwing things away or donating them or selling them. Getting rid of things is just a small part of the whole minimalism journey. Minimalism means living a more conscious life, thinking about what you really need and how you want to spend your life.

Since I have kind of started on my minimalist journey, I am more aware of things in our house. We had these two-three things that we never use but somehow I keep seeing them around the house. My husband's old TT racket and a ashtray from an old car. I would see them here and there. And sometimes the kids would pick them and play for a while and them throw them. The maid would keep them on shelf and we would all forget about it.

This weekend I finally threw them away. It really felt good. Why did we keep them in the first place. How did they become a part of the flotsam in our house? I think in these two particular cases, it was sheer laziness and not being aware of what things we have.


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I have sold some more of my books - for throwaway prices I must add but I don't see any alternative. I did give one of my friends first pass at taking any of the books she wanted. She took a few and I sold the rest. Then I sold some more. And now I have identified a few more I want to get rid of.

You know books are a kind of prestige issue. I have enjoyed the Shopaholics series but I think I will never tell anyone that. The fear of being taken for a simple person? Not an intellectual?

So, I have kept books that I have not really enjoyed but I have kept them because they are classics or because they are very critically acclaimed or they were highly recommended by someone "intellectual". I always thought that I should re-read them and maybe I will understand them better. I didn't like the Alchemist or the novels of Murakami or anything by Marquez (have no patience for fantasy realism if that is the right word for Marquez). But I thought I "should" like them.

Finally I understand I don't have to like anything. So I am throwing away (almost) any book I would not be interested in re-reading.

The Minimalist Journey Update

I spent a couple of weekends, cleaning , de-cluttering and feeling great about it. These are the things I was able to give away/throw

1. 3 bags full of my clothes to the maid
2. 1 bag of baby clothes to the maid for her grandchild
3. 3 bags full of garbage
4. 15-20 empty boxes

and the most difficult of all

5. Sold 20 of my books
6. Kept aside another 25 books for selling/giving away

The Minimalist Journey - Day 2

"Start Small" that is one of my guiding principles for this journey towards Minimalism. So, this weekend I did start really really small - by organising my really modest earring collections.

Throw - zero
Give Away - 6 Pairs of earrings that I never use

Minimalism - Lets Start with the Clothes!!

Minimalism Goals!!

So, yes I need some motivation to get the Minimalism drive going. Who better than my mom to motivate me. Mom and Dad are here on 6th of September. So, that gives me more than a month to get all the clothes , my store room, my cupboards, my kitchen and my so-called study room under control. Mom was trying to get me to clean the study room last time she was here.

What do I start with?

I think the biggest mess is clothes. The reasons are many - out of season clothes, clothes kept in the hope that they will fit one day (ha ha as if they will), clothes that I never liked and never wore but feel guilty to throw out as they are practically new.


So, I will start one piece a time. Lets sort them - Keep, Give Away, Rags, Store


#Minimalism

TIME's list of ALL TIME 100 Novels

100 best English language novels since 1923 - As picked by TIME

20/100

• A - B

  • The Adventures of Augie March
  • All the King’s Men
  • American Pastoral
  • An American Tragedy
  • Animal Farm
  • Appointment in Samarra
  • Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
  • The Assistant
  • At Swim-Two-Birds
  • Atonement
  • Beloved
  • The Berlin Stories
  • The Big Sleep
  • The Blind Assassin
  • Blood Meridian
  • Brideshead Revisited
  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey

• C - D

  • Call It Sleep
  • Catch-22
  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Confessions of Nat Turner
  • The Corrections
  • The Crying of Lot 49
  • A Dance to the Music of Time
  • The Day of the Locust
  • Death Comes for the Archbishop
  • A Death in the Family
  • The Death of the Heart
  • Deliverance
  • Dog Soldiers

• F - G

  • Falconer
  • The French Lieutenant’s Woman
  • The Golden Notebook
  • Go Tell it on the Mountain
  • Gone With the Wind
  • The Grapes of Wrath
  • Gravity’s Rainbow
  • The Great Gatsby

• H - I

  • A Handful of Dust
  • The Heart is A Lonely Hunter
  • The Heart of the Matter
  • Herzog
  • Housekeeping
  • A House for Mr. Biswas
  • I, Claudius
  • Infinite Jest
  • Invisible Man

• L - N

• Light in August
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
• Lolita
• Lord of the Flies
• The Lord of the Rings
• Loving
• The Moviegoer
• Lucky Jim
• The Man Who Loved Children
• Midnight’s Children
• Money
• Mrs. Dalloway
• Naked Lunch
• Native Son
• Neuromancer
• 1984
• Never Let Me Go

• O - R

  • On the Road
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  • The Painted Bird
  • Pale Fire
  • A Passage to India
  • Play It As It Lays
  • Portnoy’s Complaint
  • Possession
  • The Power and the Glory
  • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  • Rabbit, Run
  • Ragtime
  • The Recognitions
  • Red Harvest
  • Revolutionary Road

• S - T

  • The Sheltering Sky
  • Slaughterhouse Five
  • Snow Crash
  • The Sot-Weed Factor
  • The Sound and the Fury
  • The Sportswriter
  • The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
  • The Sun Also Rises
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God
  • Things Fall Apart
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • To the Lighthouse
  • Tropic of Cancer

• U - W

  • Ubik
  • Under the Net
  • Under the Volcano
  • Watchmen
  • White Noise
  • White Teeth
  • Wide Sargasso Sea

The Long Journey To Minimalism - Day 1

I managed to clean my shoe rack and one bookshelf today. It took around 15 minutes

1. Throw : 1 Pair of  Torn Slippers
2. Sell: 5 Books/Novels


I love to read and have lots of books. I think I will never be able to completely let go of my books. But I took a kind of hard look at the books in one of my bookshelves and thought about the books I don't like and will never re-read them. The books that haven't given me any joy. I came up with 5 books. I think I can come up with a few more once I take a re-look at the bookshelf.

1. Start Small
2. Ask yourself - Does this thing give me joy?

I want to be a Minimalist!

Recently, I came across the term Minimalist on the Nourishing Minimalism blog for the first time.
http://nourishingminimalism.com/

Once I read more about it, I realised that I surely want to be a Minimalist. It does make a lot of sense to me and this is something I would really like to try.

Mess or clutter is something I have never liked. It makes me stressed and unhappy. Though my house doesn't look messy, there is a lot of hidden mess. Our house has a lot of open space as its a big space and we don't have a lot of furniture. Also as it was just the two of us, we had enough space to store all the junk we had. But now with two kids and with one set of parents living with us, it is high time to declutter.

So, the plan is to start decluttering ASAP. I think the strategy that will work for me is the everyday 15 minute declutter. Right now, I really don't have the luxury to spend large batches of time to declutter. So, the 15 minute challenge will work for now though I feel I need to spend at least a couple of weekends taking care of my clothes situation.

So, let the decluttering challenge begin!!