So I decided to start clearing out some unused, old, collecting dust clutter today.  It was either that or yard work but yard work won last weekend.

Over the past ten years or so, I have gained and lost 40 pounds.  Twice.  The last time I lost weight (almost two years ago), I cleared out most of the “big” clothes and dropped off the bags at Goodwill.  When I gained the weight back last time, I donated most of the “small” clothes as well.  Even with both closet clearings, I still have stuff that never gets worn.

I went into the way back of two closets and found some leftover skinny clothes from the first go around and those got tossed into the “donate” box. I found two outfits that still had the tags on them.  I suppose I bought those things when I thought I’d lose more weight, but that didn’t happen.  On the upside, I found two pair of pants from the in between stage that still fit and are “classic” enough to still be worn.  Goodness knows, I wouldn’t want to be out of style.  Ha!

Next up was shoes.  I am sort of a rare woman because I really don’t like buying shoes.  It always seems like I find a pair I like, try them on, walk a few steps in the store only to bring them home and they hurt my feet.  How can that be?  I had done a shoe purge a few months ago, so only a few pair went into the box.

I was thinking about this whole minimalist lifestyle / declutter thing this morning and tried to figure out why most of us have trouble letting go of things we buy.   Sometimes I struggle with it because I feel like I haven’t gotten my money’s worth out of stuff.  If I only wore the shoes once or twice, then I feel like I should keep them in case – just in case – I somehow figure out a way to wear them again.   You know, at some mythical point in time in the future.  That rarely happens.

I read something on a minimalist webpage a few weeks ago about a challenge to keep only 33 items of clothing – including accessories – to wear for work and leisure.  Yes, that includes shoes but does not include underwear.    If you think about it, most of us wear the same things over and over again week in and week out.  I like to keep other things for “variety” or just in case.  You know, just in case I feel like wearing something else.

For the most part, I’m not much of a pack rat and for the most part I only buy things that I have some sort of use for.  When my brother and I cleared out my dad’s house (our childhood home) a few years ago, we were ever so thankful that my dad wasn’t a pack rat, either.

We found four crates in the attic – one for each of us – that held things from each of our lives.  There were old school papers, old diaries, some toys, pictures, and general crap that we thought was important at some point.  We kept some things that really WERE special (or entertaining) but threw most of it away.  It was surprisingly easy.  What we kept has meaning to us or brings back a memory.

The problem is, those things are now in boxes taking up space.  I won’t part with them so it’s a matter of moving things around, getting rid of other less important things and making room.   There are just certain things you cannot ever replace and those things are what we should hold onto.

A few weeks ago, I went to Ikea to buy a small bookcase for the family room.  Even though most of the books I read are borrowed from the library on the Kindle, I still buy certain books in paper form.  While I was looking for the bookcases, I came upon a pantry type cabinet that I felt I had to have for my small, lacking storage space of a kitchen.  It wasn’t in stock which is sort of a good thing because I realized how counter intuitive it was to buy a cabinet to store stuff when I could likely get rid of stuff I don’t use and then reorganize the kitchen cabinets.  THAT’S how I see the minimalist lifestyle.  Or at least the theory behind it.

And so, I will purge things from the past to free up living space as well as mental space.  The less you own, the less you have to take care of.