Downsizing and Decluttering by Patricia Forsythe

 

Inspired by fellow author Magdalena Scott and links she has provided on minimalist living, I decided to begin purging my closets, cabinets, and drawers of items I don’t use.  It’s time to see what I’m keeping because I just love it and what I’m keeping out of habit.  Habit is very strong and it’s hard to break.

Within a couple of hours, I had emptied almost one hundred hangers of no longer needed items.  Those got donated along with the hangers (so I won’t fill them up again).  I know I also need to sort through my shoes and get rid of some, but that may require oxygen and paramedics. 

My dresser drawers are something I can handle.  I have a dozen or more scarves of all types, neatly folded and ready for use – something that won’t happen because I rarely dress up anymore and, after all, I’ve only got one neck.

I’m sure there must be panty hose in the dresser.  What am I doing with those?  No one in their right mind wears panty hose in Arizona in the summer.  It’s too darned hot.  And knee high stockings?  I know I never bought as many as I seem to own.  Years ago, my sister expressed the opinion that they breed like rabbits inside closed dresser drawers.  I’m afraid to open the drawers for fear they’ll bounce out and create new colonies beneath the bed and behind the bookcase.  I must be brave though, and try to outsmart them.

Books need to go.  I’ve got many I’ll never part with, but also many I’ll never read – books of the ‘wall-banger’- type – ones that were so awful I bounced them off the wall and never finished them.  These can be recognized by the bent pages and, possibly, shoe prints on the cover.  I’m somewhat rabid about having my time and money wasted on a bad book.  I’ve discovered this is a drawback of having an e-reader.  Deleting a badly written book doesn’t have the same emotional satisfaction as throwing it against the wall. 

After all of this cleaning out, I felt strangely lighter, as if I’d shrugged a burden off my shoulders.  Next, I’m going to start on the kitchen.  It will be interesting to see how many cooking utensils I can get rid of, how many coffee mugs and glasses I can give away.  I remember an aunt of mine saying that when she moved from the house where she and my uncle had lived for forty years, she discovered they had nine wine sets – decanters and matching glasses.  She and my uncle never drank wine and she didn’t know where those sets came from.  Possibly, they were on the same uncontrolled breeding program as the knee high stockings.

Wish me luck!