With thanks to www.mindset.ws for the excellent diagram above.
It’s moved, really quite substantially. Not my mind (though it shudders and shakes on a regular basis as I try to dredge up some vital piece of information such as the preterite tense of ir, I remembered eventually it’s fui, fuiste etc.) but my mindset. My mindset is becoming more minimalist. I have a long way to go before I have a house that looks like a John Pawson , if indeed I actually want one. However, I now find myself wandering around the rooms picking up things and questioning their right to be there.
Today I removed a salt and pepper set, 3 hurricane lamps a (very neat but unnecessary) pile of magazines, a vase and a soap dish. I wasn’t actually decluttering I was making the beds, doing the laundry and getting ready for the WI meeting. Nonetheless I automatically decluttered, I did it without thinking. My eyes were seeing things from a different angle to before.
I first noticed the difference when we were in Glasgow and although I was happy to potter around the shops it was mainly because I was enjoying reliving my youth (well my twenties!) rather than the shopping itself. In terms of purchases I bought one pair of shoes £15 (approximate original value from Bally £350) almost unworn, complete with wooden shoe trees to replace a pair that I threw out. Hardly profligate and wanton consumerism.
So if the mindset is changing, what else will change? How will that affect the rest of my life and those around me? I hope it leads to some of the following:
- more space, not just physical but emotional. We have all noticed how much nicer the house is with less stuff in it and there is a feeling of movement rather than blockage.
- more time. With less to look after and only the things we want to look after I hope we have more time for each other, for doing things we want to do rather than have to do.
- less pointless decisions (this dress or those shoes for example).
- opportunities for my daughters to see how a less materialistic life is not a less rich life.
- questions, discussions and learning from each other.
- less unnecessary expenditure.
I am coming to the end of the first week of my blog. This time next year I hope I can look back and tick yes to the above.
one pair of shoes at a time 
Excellent, Gillian! I know that in the past when I’ve spent time de-cluttering, my work takes on a manic spirit, and the kids start to fear that I’ll throw them out, too. It’s so freeing to get down to what you actually NEED and only that.
I had a wander around the house today picking up things and realising I didn’t want them. Off they went 🙂
I find decluttering to be an ongoing, lifelong process – 15 years so far! Life goes on, situations change, things come and go, kids move out, members of the older generation leave us things… I still find it exhiliarating to get rid of stuff, even though I like my creature comforts!
Do you follow Bea’s blog, I wonder? I find her zeal interesting, but couldn’t see us being quite that extreme! But loving reading about your journey into minimalism and zero waste 🙂
It was reading Bea’s book that started me on the journey. I thought I was quite good at decluttering but what I was really good at was tidying. Then we were flooded and I had to clear up. I agree she has taken it to the limit but she has made me think about what we need and use.