Time To Reduce

I've been working on filing my income taxes and those of my son. Fun times! Also, I've been working on the FAFSA form to apply for financial aid for my son's sophmore year in college next fall. More good times! Every year I put all my paperwork needed to fill out all these forms in a safe place where I will remember where they are. And....you got it, it's never where I think it is and  I can never find everything I need without practically tearing the house apart. This not only happens at tax time, but almost everytime I put something where I will remember, and then I never do.

I did realize something as I was looking for everything that I needed, I have too much stuff. Most people have a junk drawer somewhere in their home, I think I have about four. I'm an avid reader and I have stacks of books in my bookcase, a box in one closet and another box or two in the basement. I'm not sure why I'm holding onto all of them, there are only a handful of books that I would even read a second time. I love to cook and I have quite a few cookbooks, but I only really use three or four of them, the others are just collecting dust.

Now I do believe a girl can never have too many clothes or shoes, but....I have clothes packed away that I've had for years, clothes I no longer like or they longer like me! It's time to let go. Don't be mistaken, it's not cluttered like "hoarder" cluttered, but I could definitely reduce my stuff.

Reduce, it's really a big word, it's letting go of stuff that we think is important or things that we think mean something special. But when you really start looking at all your stuff you might discover that things you thought were important really aren't. At one time I wanted to collect rabbit figurines, I collected a half dozen or so and then lost interest, but I still have those knick knacks sitting around.  They seemed special at the time, but now they are just more things I have to dust when cleaning. And then there are the cookbooks I just had to have to make fabulous meals, but I've never used some of them. I think I need to get rid of a couple of junk drawers.

Living a "greener" life is really a big undertaking, you, or at least I, have to reevaluate everything that I do, and change how I look at things. From reading different magazine articles and various other blogs, reducing not only entails reducing what you buy, buying things with less packaging, but also reducing things in your space. There are things that I will never get rid of, some glass knick knacks that belonged to my grandmother, some little treasures that my son made for me when he was little, framed photos of family and friends and pets. I don't intend to live in a home where there is nothing personal or special sitting around.

So part of my spring cleaning this year will be donating the clothes that don't like me anymore to the Goodwill. I'll be packing up several boxes of books that I've already read, along with the cookbooks that I don't use, and sell them to the secondhand book store. The knick knacks that have no special meaning will be given away or given to the Goodwill. I'm going to organize my paperwork, cleaning out my drawers...so to speak! I'm going to pare down, make my space "cleaner", more functional, less cluttered and be surrounded by happy and special memories, not just stuff.


Kathy