How My House Lost Weight

a.k.a.  What I've cleaned so far in my quest to simplify and what I've learned in the process.

Decluttering your closets and cupboards feels good!  Really good!  Decluttering your closets and cupboards can be slightly embarrassing.  Or really embarrassing!  I have a few more to do (3 cupboards) but other than that, the purging has been going smoothly.

While cleaning a cupboard the other day, I actually found a bag of sugar that was hard.  Like a brick.  A 5 pound brick.  I must have bought it for Christmas cookie baking and tucked it into the wrong cupboard and forgot about it.  Embarrassing!  Sometimes I think silly thoughts like..."What if I die tomorrow and someone has to go through these drawers and closets and they find something like that brick of sugar?  Or that bag of candy in the bottom of my closet that I bought for Christmas and forgot to put out? What will they think of me?  Will they wonder out loud "Why does she have 6 cans of expired cannelloni beans in here?"

But back to what I've learned.  I've learned that with decluttering, I'm not so overwhelmed by the stuff hidden behind the doors.  I've learned that by decluttering the physical things, it begins to open  up my mind to decluttering the mental things.  I've learned that I don't need more "stuff".  I've learned that it makes me freer to do the things I want to do and that it alleviates the guilt with doing the things I want to do when I'm not worried about the messes that I haven't attended to.  I've learned that I have too much "stuff".  I've learned to look at things with a critical eye to determine if it stays or goes and I've learned that sometimes it's easier than I thought to determine that it goes.And I've learned that when it's all been cleaned and organized and accounted for, that life is just easier.

In addition, I've taken the clutter out of my eating.  I'm eating more simply.  It makes cooking easier, the grocery bill smaller, and the food more healthy.

I'm almost done with the physical, house decluttering and look forward to the next phase.  The mental decluttering.  But I'll let you in on a little secret...when you begin the physical decluttering, the mental decluttering starts without any effort.  And that, my friends, is freeing.

When all is said and done, and I lift the weight of of all of this clutter from my shoulders, it will accelerate my journey to concentrate on lifting the weight from my physical being.  Wow.  I think I've had an epiphany of sorts.  I'm encouraged by my progress.

Total weight loss from decluttering:  Probably about 100 pounds of garbage bags filled with stuff - including 5 pounds of brick hard sugar. 

Have a wonderful, simple, uncomplicated day. 

“The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go."  Steve Maraboli