I posted in
How many things? about my long term dream of working towards 100 things or less. Clearly, I possess more than a 100. pProbably by a factor of another 100. Am not kidding you.
I knew the 100 things goal is steep, and wanted to develop an interim goal- say 1000, or 10000 things. I didn't even know what an interim number could be, because I realized I don't know how many things I currently have.
When the opportunity came to downsize commonly owned possessions because we had to split furniture between two of our family homes, I seized the opportunity with both hands.
I sent almost all of our furniture, several appliances (the TV goes tomorow!) and some garden stuff to the other home. In the process, we discovered stuff that we didin't require in either household, and I got to sell (for a pittance, but I am not complaining) about 30 kilograms of steel utensils.
I have so far taken out about 8 large bags of trash, and more goes out every day.
I would say my house is now about 60 % downsized.
And there is still all of my stuff and Danny's to go through!
The living room is redone in a spare, simple style. There are a couple of bean bags, some floor seating and a couple of foldable floor chairs in bamboo that are as comfortable as they are cool. Danny's homemade box projector doubles as a coffee table.
The bedroom is utterly empty. We roll out a flaxen mattress every night, and promptly roll it back up in the morning so it forms a low, cushiony seating.
As I always suspected, stark rooms have a silent, peaceful atmosphere that is utterly soothing. These two rooms are now giving me the energy and motivation to tackle the gnarly messes that are my two other rooms. I find that clean, spare rooms are "quiet", while a mess is "noisy", almost literally for my synesthetic self.
While I am enthusiastic about downsizing, I am not all that sharp with reorganizing what I do have. I have picked up some tips on the internet to help with this:
1. Everytime you leave a room, take something superfluous out. Sell it, donate it or trash it. When the room has absolutely nothing that you cannot do without, the room is done.
2. When you enter a space, don't leave without setting something right. This means if you go into the kitchen to get a drink of water, see if your utensils need stacking before you leave. This way, mess does not get a chance to develop.
3. NEVER sleep in a messy house. You can begin by ensuring that at least your bedroom is orderly before you hit the sack. The next day, make that the bedroom + another room. And so on till the house is all set.
4. Invite people over. Despite what I like to think of myself, I am terrified of public opinion, especially when the opinion flirts dangerously with the truth. basically, I don't want to be outed as a slob by guests. Short notice visits are an excellent motivation for me to clean and set right. If you find yourself especially lethargic about decluttering and cleaning, pick up the phone and call someone over, especially someone who is very inclined to find fault with your house. If there isn't a female in-law available, mothers do just as nicely. As do aunts.
Right after I hit "publish" on this post, I have to go back to the war room at the back of the house, where "my" stuff sits. I have a lot of preparatory cleaning up to do before I can even start counting "my" stuff. Each personal object will count as 1, while commonly owned article will count as 0.5 (article divided by number of housefold members - in my case, 2)
Off I go now.
