100 (and a few) Days of Decluttering
20100627.2139 #blog
Three weeks ago on June 9 was the official Day 100 of my 100 Thing Challenge. While I’m happy to say that I succeeded in reducing my stuff to 100 things*, I’ve learned that it still isn’t quite enough. (* If you recall, the rules for my personal 100 Thing Challenge were pretty liberal, allowing me to keep my books and CDs. So technically, I’m nowhere near 100 individual items. More like 500-700. Oy.) What I’ve realized is that I have an attachment to some of my stuff, notably books and music. A prime example would be my Ancient Greek textbooks. While I really want to know Ancient Greek, I spend zero time on actually learning it. So I asked myself, “What is the purpose of holding on to a thing if I’m never going to actually use that thing?”
I’ve made a new rule for books which should make getting rid of them a little bit easier. (I love books!) In addition to a one in, two out rule, and a ‘Read the books I have’ rule, I’m also instituting a rule for my language books. If I don’t use at least one of my language reference books for at least thirty minutes a day, then I must get rid of them. As for music, I should rip my CDs to my hard drive and get rid of the discs. I’m not a purist, so I don’t need to keep the discs or the liner notes when it’s the music itself that I want. I’ve been doing the same with some of my DVDs that I watch often. I also have a Netflix account, so any discs I don’t rip I’ll still be able to rent at a moment’s notice.
So those rules will help me take care of the book and music issue, and maybe shave a couple hundred Things off of my personal inventory of stuff. Other stuff issues I’ve been having revolve around office stuff. As an illustrator of comics and art, I have a lot of paper with bits and bobs of sketches and art. I have been consolidating a lot of it into sketch portfolios, but this is a good example of how I can get really attached to my stuff. I have drawings dating back to the Twentieth Century, and it’s near impossible for me to part with them. Why? Because these are things that I have created myself, and it is a major challenge to separate myself from my artwork. That’s really the primary reason why I prefer doing digital work rather than original pieces. At least I can part with a digital work because I’ll always have the original file in my hard drive.
I’ll table the art dilemma for now and work on decluttering my bookshelf and CD case. In the meantime, I should praise myself for the major amount of decluttering I’ve managed to accomplish in the first 100 days. Remember that a minimalist lifestyle isn’t something to do in a weekend like a trip to Mount Rushmore. It’s an ongoing process that can always be honed.
