Monday, November 2, 2020

Making Space...

Having completed the 30-Day Minimalism Challenge in October, and wanting to continue with house clearing in some fashion, I've come across an idea (iow, it's not original) for doing this in a less intense, but still effective way.  And I'm inviting anyone who'd be interested in joining me to do so.  (If you're reading this and it sounds familiar, it is.  I've cut and pasted from a previous post and decided to create a separate post dedicated just to this for making it easier to refer to if I want to in the future.)

I have decided to set a goal of creating one weekly post accounting for items leaving the house that week.  Personally, I'm going to aim toward the goal of 10 items each week, but I'm not going to stress at all over the actual number.  I'm simply hoping the goal of a weekly post and a reasonable number of items leaving will keep me going with clearing my home of unwanted and unnecessary stuff.  I am sure there will be weeks when I remove more than 10 items, but there will probably be weeks when I don't come up with that many items, and maybe some weeks I won't post at all - because...  well, life.

In fact, it was the intensity (especially toward the end) of the 30-day challenge that made me realize I was forgoing concentrated cleaning and decluttering for the sake of the challenge.  I'm glad for the challenge as it jump starts something, but what I hope to accomplish now is decluttering in a more purposeful way.  A way that may make messes, or take longer than a day.  If I decide to sift through craft items, or photographs, or my closet...  anything...  I can take my time to do that as thoroughly as I want.  My goal isn't just to get rid of things, but to make the space we live in as nice as it can be.  To live in, to invite others into, to create in.  I've learned over and over that too much stuff stifles my desire to create.  I believe we all need space in our minds and in our physical surroundings to go about the often times messy business of creating, making things.  Even just making our spaces better usually involves a bit of mess before "better" happens.

If you'd like to join me, just for the sake of camaraderie and mutual inspiration, that would be wonderful. There is no commitment to a time frame, or even a regular post.  There's just the opportunity to post however regularly you want to post about decluttering.  The beauty of this, I'm thinking, is that there is no pressure to post, there's no "getting behind" or feeling like you need to catch up - ever.  There will just be a weekly (that's my personal goal) opportunity to share the camaraderie of however many of us are working to make more space in our homes.  

I only have one personal rule for this - for me, decluttering a thing has to be an intentional decision to let something go, and then taking action.  Things I throw away or recycle as a matter of course, I won't be counting.  That doesn't mean there won't be things that will go straight into the trash or recycling bin.  Here's an example of what this might look like:   If I open a jar of spaghetti sauce for supper and I wash and recycle the jar as I'm cleaning up the kitchen, I wouldn't count the jar as something I decluttered.  But if I've been hanging onto jars thinking I'll do something with them someday and I finally decided to just recycle them and clear some space - that I would definitely count.  You make your own rules.

I have some ideas of things I'd like to share in posts...  photos, for sure, since they make this personal and relatable; podcasts and videos I come across throughout the process that I find motivating; books I may read or listen to that inspire and motivate me; and links to blogs - perhaps yours and others that share inspiring tidbits, or prove as good examples of diminishing the amount of stuff in our homes.  And, of course, stories - if I have any.  It's stories that we all share of why we've been saving things and how or why we set them free that can help break the hold some items may have on us.  Don't get me wrong.  We should keep what is important to us to keep. For whatever reason it may be important.  It's just that sometimes we hang onto things we don't even really want to keep, and all it takes is an instant shift in perspective from someone else's experience to set us free. 

I'm planning on making my post mid-week -- Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, whichever day works for that week.  If I don't post, it may be that I didn't have the time or maybe just the inclination.  Hopefully others will post and keep the inspiration going.

What to call it?  I know it doesn't sound very original, but I'm calling it Making Space.  That phrase encompasses not only making space in our homes, but making space in our lives and minds and hearts for things that truly matter to us.  If you join along, feel free to use that title if you want - and I've come up with a graphic that anyone joining can feel free to grab from my blog to use if they like.  

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Of course you can make your own graphic, or feel free to grab (copy to your own computer) a graphic on this page or any of my Making Space posts if you want to use it for your Making Space posts.  








I couldn't stop fiddling with the background color over at Fotor.com  ðŸ˜„

And a few different ones just for fun...












18 comments:

  1. Love the flower photo. I'd try to pick up the pinkish mauve in the vase under the flowers area.
    The name is good. Making space for me to breath is how I feel about the project.

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    1. Thanks, Salty. It was a freebie stock photo on FOTOR. I'm doing this on the cheap, but I'm game for playing with the color wheel some more. It's not easy getting a precise color and I don't know if I approximated Mauve in any of the graphics above, but I did enjoy going darker. Thanks for the idea and challenge.

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    2. Try different color html websites. They can have shades easier to find. Write down the #code.

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    3. Okay... Did as you suggested and while I think it was more luck than anything that I came upon a color that was pretty close to the exact shade of mauve as is on the vase, but called something else... I'm wondering if I pretty much nailed it with that last flower graphic? Thanks for mentioning color html websites, Salty. I'd never visited one before.

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  2. I have really enjoyed your series. Perhaps I'll participate every now and then. Goodness knows I need to!

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    1. Thank you, Vee! It would be fun to have you join any time - if you're so inclined.

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  3. We might also consider a corollary to this: improving or renovating something so that we can enjoy using it. Thus avoiding buying a new one. That would be dodging clutter before it happens.

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    1. Your last line is such a good point, Liz. That is certainly my ultimate goal. You are so good at this. I just need to remove some stuff before I can clearly see my way to improving or renovating what's worth hanging onto for that purpose.

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  4. What a great idea and I really like your enthusiasm Becki, I was lying awake last night thinking about all the stuff I have in my house, I should go through every bit of it and get rid of what I don't need so I will be joining you now and then.

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    1. The motivation for the 30-Day Challenge was knowing I needed the prod to seriously deal with stuff brought home from my MIL's this summer (though most of what I decluttered was our own stuff). The enthusiasm that sprang from that purge is the thought that now I can dig deeper into my home more methodically. We have an end-goal of selling our house (hopefully), and that is highly motivating for removing too much stuff. And since life has slowed down and we're home more during this COVID time it seems like I should have plenty of time to make some serious progress in moving in that direction.

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  5. Haha! You had me. Just got out of bed this morning and got some coffee and opened up your post and started reading ... I almost stopped reading thinking I hadn't had enough coffee since this sounded like a repeat! And then you said it was a repeat! I feel so much better! Haha! I am not loosing my mind. It is always nice to get confirmation of that!! haha! Ready set go! Declutter! This event is a great way to set up a habit.

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    1. So glad I added the note. I could imagine regular readers being seriously annoyed to find they had just read the same thing, basically, that I had published just two days prior. :)

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  6. I like this idea, Beckie! Making a habit of "making space" is even better than a challenge, I think. (Although sometimes a challenge can kind of jump start a habit.) I, too, may join you from time to time. I have copied one of your graphics with that possibility in mind. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Habit is a good word. I'd like to develop the habit of not reflexively stashing, squirrelling away, hoarding - that last word is such an ugly word, and I know you would not walk into my house and think I am a hoarder, but that's what some of my stuff amounts to. It's not that saving things for a later use, or stocking up on necessities, or having collections is hoarding, but I have learned over and over again that if I am not mindful - if I don't actually use the things I've "put away", I am simply hoarding. While I don't mean that in the "you may find me buried by my clutter" way, it is still ugly in that it creates conflict in my soul, body and mind.

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  7. Becki, I am joining you on this journey. It really enjoyed last month's challenge but agree, towards the end it there was really no 'purpose' other than to rack up the number of items leaving the house. I am looking forward to continuing the goal of becoming more of a minimalist. I don't think I will ever get to the point of being able to live in a tiny house though lol. But, I would love to think, if I needed to move into a smaller house, it would not be too much of a struggle to do so. Not to mention, having too much 'stuff' makes me feel like a materialistic person and I hate that feeling. I look forward to the day, I can walk into any room of my house and know I have exactly what I need. No more, no less. That will be the day when I will be at peace in my mind and in my soul.

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    1. Your last line makes me want to encourage you to watch a video I'm linking to in tomorrow's post. It's about 13 minutes long and (IMO) worth a watch. Like most things - if you've lived long enough, it's not necessarily new information, but perhaps simply packaged in a way that reawakened something in me.

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  8. I made a grand start on something for next week and then, being of not sound mind (as usual), trundled it down to the 'free' table in the laundry room without remembering to take a picture....argh!!!

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    1. I've been thinking myself about how to keep that from happening. In the end, though, photos aren't required - it's my tally I'm truly excited to see grow. I hope you'll share anyway.

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