Living With Less

In 2011 I wrote a blog post entitled “Lifestyle Experiment: Living With Less Clothes” where I detailed the mega clothing purge I was inspired to do based on this blog post on HappyBlackWoman.com.   You can read my blog post here for the backstory: Lifestyle Experiment • Living With Less Clothes.  You all should also be familiar with my “Use Up Your Stash” updates done each season where I show the products I’ve finished and/or are just getting rid of. Clearly minimizing my material possessions is a consistent thought in my mind.

Recently I’ve been feeling like I’m in a place of transition.

I don’t know why either. It may be the abundance of inspiring and positive books I’ve been reading lately, or that my 40 birthday looms on the horizon and I’m having a famed ‘midlife crisis’. I don’t think I am but who knows.  Either way, I’m in the mind to make significant changes that better reflect who I am and not who I think I should be.  No more shoulding on myself. 

One such change is getting rid of many of the items that feel like they’re caving in on me.

Finally.

Here’s some of my recent inspiration:

• What Would Your Life Be Like With Less Stuff? (A Lifestyle Experiment) on Happy Black Woman
• The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer
• Why I Got Rid of My Wardrobe on Dallas Moms Blog

I’ve always felt anxious when surrounded by too many things.

When I was a child one of my parents was prone to clutter which always made me uneasy.  I’m no psychiatrist, but I’m certain that had something to do with the deep aversion I’ve developed to having extraneous items lying around.  It legitimately makes me itch (raised cortisol levels and all that).  I remember one particular instance of getting in trouble for throwing away some of my parent’s stuff that my young mind deemed to obviously be trash (turns out with grown kids they somehow had need of a baby hair brush?? and other crap I felt shouldn’t be there … who knew? :-/).

Anyhoo…

I’ve decided to answer the visceral pull to lighten my load and get rid of some, dare I say many, of the things I own.  It may not be the way of most “beauty bloggers” (but remember, I’m not a beauty blogger) or most Americans … but it’s gonna be my way dagnabbit and I feel better accepting it and putting out into the universe.

Soooo, what does all this mean?

Well honestly I don’t know, but I feel it’s the beginning of a journey and I plan to document at least some of it.  What I do know is, for the next 30 days minimum, I will be getting rid of items and posting them online to keep myself accountable.

As in my previous blog post, the items that go bye bye will fit the following criteria:

• I don’t like it
• I’ve never worn/used or will never wear/use it
• I’ve worn/used it so much that it’s falling apart and I need to let it go #quefrozen
• The only reason I’m holding onto it is because someone gave it to me and I don’t want to hurt their feelings
• It doesn’t fit or work for me
• I wish I could wear/use it but, if I’m realistic, I cannot or will not
• Any other reason I devise for getting rid of some of this junk and living a lighter life

Also as in my previous post, by “go bye bye” I mean one of three things:

1. Go to the Goodwill as a donation
2. go in the trash
3. go into a large plastic bag in storage in my basement to see if I miss them, then eventually out the door.

I am not limiting this next month’s purge to clothing only, no item is safe.  I plan on documenting my progress daily on Instagram under the hashtag #glamazinilivingwithless  (probably on Facebook, Pinterest and even Google+ also)

Feel free to join me if you are so inclined.  Let’s see where this goes.

I’ll be back at the end of the month with a recap post so stay tuned and be sure to follow me elsewhere using the hashtag #glamazinilivingwithless in the meantime.

Love & light.

~ ini