Evil Genius at Work

2 old lotions (trash)
2 old lip glosses (trash)
1 Yankee Candle (charity box)

Total items so far: 35

Today:

5 CDs (ripped the songs I want, the rest to the used book store box)
2 travel books (used book store box)

Items so far: 30

Today I decluttered:

3 pairs of socks (charity box)
1 lonely sock without a mate (trash)
1 old magazine (working my way through some back issues)

Total items so far: 15

All before breakfast.

I told my partner that I was doing this, and of course he did the mental math. “So, you think you have over 1800 things to get rid of?”

“Oh, easily. But even if I just throw out a bent paper clip, that’s a thing.”

Wow, 1800 things. Thinking about all the stuff crammed into my desk, my drawers, shelves and boxes… yeah, I bet I do. I sometimes feel as if I’m drowning in stuff. I go into the front bedroom, which I’m trying to make into a kind of study/retreat, and I don’t even know where to begin. This is where we’ve stuck everything we don’t want to deal with yet, and man, there’s a LOT of it. Time to deal.

Yesterday was my birthday, and for this new year (new year of me, anyway) I have made a resolution to get rid of five things a day for the year. On Friday I decluttered:

2 linen dresses (charity box)
1 pair of old underwear (trash can)
2 cookbooks (box for used book store)

And today I decluttered:

1 more cookbook (used book store)
1 half-empty bottle of old styling product (trash)
1 old bottle of eye drops (trash)
1 ruler (charity box)
1 old magazine (recycling bin)

That’s 10 things! Planning to work on my clothes tomorrow. I have way too many socks and t-shirts.

Tomorrow I turn… old enough not to have to tell. Suffice to say, it’s a birthday. My home is feeling more open and comfortable, but there is still this one room… and all these drawers… a bunch of “hidden” clutter that needs to be dealt with. So, starting tomorrow, I will get rid of five things each day for a year. This is the hard stuff we’re talking about here – either hard to get rid of because of emotional attachments, or inconvenient to dispose of because it should be disposed of “properly” – such as my comic book collection that has a number of very valuable items and a bunch of items that I can’t begin to value. Ugh. Anyway…

I can’t claim that this was my brilliant idea – I’m totally ripping it off from a comment someone left on a post somewhere, and they got it from someone else who got it, I think, from a book. But it’s a great idea, and I’m doing it.

So starting tomorrow I will get rid of at least five items each day, and post them here. If anyone is reading this, why don’t you join me? I’m sure I have enough items to get rid of five a day and still have more to do at the end of one year – but maybe I’m wrong. Will it take a year? Only one way to find out.

I have been a prolific knitter recently, since I found a missing knitting needle in my sofa and have been reinvigorated by my recent trip to Sock Camp. I have also acquired a new hobby, drop spindle spinning, which is fun, productive, and feels more creative than just about any other handicraft I have put my hands to in a while. No pattern, no recipe, just my two hands, my imagination, and my tools. I have to give a huge thanks to fellow Sock Camp attendee, Spindlerose, for showing me the basics and giving me invaluable advice. Thanks to her I found a fabulous spindle and don’t feel like a complete doofus working this wool into real, actual, bona fide yarn.

But it’s not just fibery goodness here at the lair. I’m also feeling excited about decluttering and minimizing again. I have the house to myself for a few days this week, and am enjoying some uninterrupted cleaning up and cleaning out. I have been ruthless with the knick-knacks. Tonight I will slay dust bunnies – there will be no survivors. I need to reorganize my yarn stash. Note I do not say declutter or minimize – yarn is not clutter. And as any knitter will tell you, you will never have enough. Okay, I say that, but I do have a yarn moratorium until the end of the year, with one exception – I have to buy a certain specific yarn for a certain specific project. But that’s it. Everything else, including my Xmas knitting, will have to come from my stash. Wait, how did we wind up on fiber again?

Anyway, the spirit is moving me again towards minimizing my possessions, and I have more to say about this, and the reasons behind it, and I’m sure there will be a lot of introspection and deep thoughts, but not today. Today is for doing.

Sooner or later, it seems, every aspiring minimalist asks themselves the question, “Why am I doing this?”

Yet again, Miss Minimalist has created a post that really got me thinking.

It can be easy to confuse what minimalism is and what minimalism can help you achieve. Some people want a minimalist environment or lifestyle so that they can be more productive and meet the goals they have set for themselves. This is great, and I’m hoping that minimalism will do the same for me, to a certain extent. But I am also hoping that by pursuing minimalism I will be able to clear away the extraneous clutter, commitments, and obligations that weigh on me. I find that if I set too many goals for myself, even if they are things I want to accomplish and look forward to doing, I feel trapped and obligated.

What if we look at minimalism as a rebirth of sorts? A way to start over with a clean slate. Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “If I knew then what I know now…?” If we distill our lives down to their minimalist essence, we can start over knowing what we know now.

Rather than setting goals and thinking about how your minimalist lifestyle will help you accomplish them, try getting to that place of minimalism first and THEN thinking about what you want to achieve. It may not be what you want now, and why clutter up your mind along the way?

A few years ago I was invited to a hand analysis party. When it was my turn, the analyst looked at my hand for a few seconds, then asked (and I’m repeating from memory here), “Do you find your mind going off in a million different directions at once? Do you have trouble getting to sleep because your mind is racing with idea after idea running through it nonstop? Do you have a lot of different interests, and trouble focusing on just one?” All my friends laughed, and I had to tell him this was all true.

I am chronically unfocused. I am easily distracted. Ooh! Shiny! I think some part of me sees minimalism as a way to clear the clutter from my life, purge myself of distraction, and finally accomplish the great things that this hand analyst seemed to think I could do because I have a “brain like a supercomputer”. Hell, maybe the first thing I could focus on would be figuring out what those great things are.

My favorite new blog post today is this one over at mnmlist.com. This is something even the chronically unfocused can do. Unfocused people like things spelled out in steps for them, because then they can do just one little bit and not be discouraged. I can say, “Ooh, I’m on step 3!” and know that eventually I’ll be able to do step 4, step 5, and so on.

Clutter is a distraction. My busy busy brain sees things around the house, or the office, and starts thinking about how that thing needs to be put away, or washed, or disposed of, or starts to reflect on the memory it conjures up. This is one reason why I prefer not to work at home – there’s always something that needs doing and I have never been able to tune out my surroundings. That’s why I need my surroundings toned down, I guess. Hmm, just now thought of that and it makes sense.

I think, for this unfocused person anyway, that minimalism is not only possible, it is necessary if I am ever to accomplish anything. I mentioned before that I have a busy life. I have a large circle of friends and a corresponding number of invitations and social engagements. I have a demanding job with firm deadlines that sometimes require late hours. I have a wide range of interests, and want to indulge them all. I KNOW I am not the only one. This probably describes a lot of people, maybe even you.

I don’t think these things are mutually exclusive. I think minimalism may be the answer for many busy, unfocused people to make it all work.

Knitting is not a hobby that lends itself to minimalism. Check out just about any knitting blog or forum and you will see posts and discussions about yarn stash and UFOs (unfinished objects) and yarn diets. I am no exception, although I have tried, truly tried, to limit my purchases over the past year. But knitters are like magpies, attracted not so much to glitter but to color and texture. Most of us have pretty good imaginations, and when we see a new or exciting yarn we immediately start imagining the possibilities, and we want to be the one to realize those possibilities, so we buy the yarn. Oh yes, we buy it even though it might be $20 a skein and we know in our hearts there is no way we’ll be getting to that project anytime soon because there are so many projects we want or need to get done first.

I am sure there are other hobbies that have the same risk. There are also hobbies that require very little space, but I don’t have many of those.

I will be attending a knitting event in April, and there will be yarn purchases involved, but other than that I will not be purchasing any new yarn this year. I am declaring a moratorium on yarn purchases for 2010. I need to knit down my stash, y’all. And how will I do that without getting sidetracked? I’m glad you asked, because that brings me to what’s got me excited today:

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s Personal Sock Club. Isn’t it fab? And look at her lovely, organized cabinet. Stephanie is a busy, busy woman with many commitments. I am just a busy woman. How can I make this idea work for me? Hmm…

I don’t want to knit 12 pairs of socks this year – I live in Houston and 12 pairs of wool socks just wouldn’t get worn, even though I belong to that same actual sock club she mentions and I do knit more wool socks than any Houstonian needs. But, I do want to get some projects finished and use up some of the piles of yarn taking up space in my house!

So, I will adapt her idea to my own needs. I have a big drawer and some large clear plastic bags I can use. I will go through my yarn stash and patterns, pull out 11 lovely projects that I think I can finish by the end of the year, and start my own personal knitting club.

This is a great idea for any kind of handiwork hobbyist – needlepoint, beading, crochet, sewing, etc. We all have projects in mind, but the fabric is in one spot, the pattern in another, the thread in a drawer somewhere, the canvas not purchased yet, whatever. So when we have some time to work on something, we run around gathering it all up, then realizing we’re missing something, and by the time we find that thing it’s time to fix dinner and nothing gets done.

With my own personal knitting club, a project will always be ready and waiting for me when I am ready for it.

I prepared and published a lovely post yesterday about Everett Bogue’s first ebook, The Art of Being Minimalist. That post was, sadly, lost last night when I obliterated my blog. This is not something new to me – after all, my previous blog was on JournalSpace, may it rest in peace.

Anyway, I downloaded the book yesterday, and hope to read it and post a review in the next few days. But why wait? If you have read Everett’s blog, Far Beyond the Stars, you know that he is an inspiration – daring and wise beyond his years. I have no doubt his book will contain more of the honesty and common sense found in his blog, so take a chance. But don’t waste any time – the first 1000 people to buy get a discount!