Decluttering

I cannot tell you how much I wish we had done this years ago. But years ago, I wanted 'stuff'. It made me feel better about myself, I guess. My house always looked perfect, and I guess I thought if people saw a perfect house, then they wouldn't see my (very) imperfect body. My decorations all matched perfectly, my style was great; I had a house you could show in a magazine.

Now I see how much that stuff was weighing me down. And that the more perfect my house, the more imperfect my body. I let the stuff consume me, keeping me from focusing on my body. It's hard to say which drove which - did the stuff overwhelm me, or did I not want to focus on my body, so I let the stuff overwhelm me? I am guessing it's the second. OK, I know it's the second.

We threw away 10 garbage bags of stuff yesterday. We have a GIANT pile for a garage sale. And we only tackled half of the basement and our rolltop desk and two-drawer file cabinet. Oh, and the front closet.

And this is after all the decluttering I've done over the past 15 months, which has been a significant amount as well (think 9 trips to Goodwill in one of my decluttering modes).

I'm keeping the stuff that is very important to me (memories, family heirlooms), things that I look at and smile, and things that serve a purpose here and now (not something I *might* use in the future, except for clothes that I am shrinking into). That's it. The rest is going.

I feel so light. I feel very focused. I feel like I can think clearly. Pounds and stuff gone - it's all good.