We finally took the tree down today. Yep! We are those people! The ones who put the tree up late in the Christmas season because we are simply too busy, and then leave it up well into January because we love the lights and all the pretty decorations and we just don't want to put it all away!
So today we finally tackled that job and while we were packing it up we started something new. It's something we have been talking about doing for weeks (and thinking about doing for years) and we finally made up our minds to take the first steps! Today, we began our experiment with minimalism!
Side note: Just in case you don't know what minimalism is, it's paring down and thinning out your possessions until you have nothing in your home that isn't of great value to you, doesn't have a proper place in your home, or doesn't have a good use. Minimalism is a way of simplifying and decluttering your life so you can feel and BE more free. Some minimalists challenge themselves to get their possessions down to only 150 items! Or, sometimes they limit themselves to only what can fit in a back pack. I do not intend to become an extreme minimalist but I do intend to drastically reduce the amount of stuff in my home until I am rid of anything that has no use, value or place in my home. I am tired of clutter and ready to free up my life!
That said, I started with a few things lying around the house that I knew I wanted gone and then went through my Christmas decorations and paraphernalia until I had a total of 67 items to get rid of! Most of the items were easy to part with; the Santa hats that were missing their pom-poms, Christmas decorations that we don't even use on the tree, and other such stuff.
I was feeling pretty good about my first attempt to purge unwanted belongings... until... Suddenly I came upon an Christmas gift I'd had for over 20 years. It was a plug-in music maker in the shape of a bear, playing the piano. One of my oldest and dearest friends gave it to me when I was just 13 and I have carried it with me since then! The problem with the music maker is that the "music" it makes is, well, annoying! Every time my youngest son turns it on I want to run and hide where I can't hear it! Which is kind of funny because I remember my Dad feeling the same way about it when I first received it and I was annoyed with him because he wouldn't let me play it! (That's karma for ya, right?!)
So the thing is loud and annoying and my first thought, when I picked it up, was to quickly put it in the "good-bye" pile before my son saw it and put up a protest. But I wasn't fast enough... to get it past myself! I held it a little to long and I thought about my dear old friend and how she had given it to me, and memories began flooding back and I remembered how much I miss her.
Barbara was like a grandmother to me. My little sister and I met her one day, as we searched for our lost dog, in a new town, where we knew no one. She was a crossing guard and because she wore a uniform I instantly distrusted her. I had been raised with a strong distrust for authority figures (Dad's ideology) and Barbara looked serious in her crossing guard uniform and hat.
I couldn't have been more wrong! Barbara turned out to be one of the most genuine people I have ever met! She was warm and kind, with a booming voice, a fabulous laugh, and a heavenly hug! Barbara wasn't only the towns most loved crossing guard, she was also the towns best cake maker! She could put together cakes in her overcrowded, under-washed kitchen that "professional" cake makers would've been jealous of! My sisters and I would clear away some of the clutter from Barbara's dining room table and play cards with her while her cakes were baking. She would serve us pretzels and ice cream and let us make prank phone calls on her phone! Then she would mix up a batch of her delicious, secret frosting, and even let us lick the bowl when she was done frosting the cake.
Barbara promised my two sisters and I, that when we got married she would make our wedding cakes, and many years later, she kept her promise! Barbara made the most beautiful cakes for my older sister and I, which family members actually picked up from her home in DE and drove to our wedding receptions, in NH and MD! Those cakes were well worth the trouble! Sadly, Barbara died before she could make my younger sister's cake.
So there I stood, holding that awful "music" maker in my hand, thinking about Barbara, and how much I missed her and I could not make myself put that thing in the good-bye pile! I told myself it was OK, that I could let it go because I have lots of pictures of Barbara and other gifts she has given me, that were not in the least bit annoying! But I still could not let it go. I showed it to my husband and told him of my dilemma and before I could finish, found myself in tears! I don't know if I was more upset at the thought of letting it go, or because I wanted to let it go and couldn't do it!
Naturally my husband, being the softy that he is, told me I didn't have to get rid of it and nobody would make me! Somehow this only made me cry harder. Suddenly I was crying because I missed my dear friend AND my brother, who passed away last year. In all my cleaning out, I found his stocking I made him when he was here for Christmas for the last time... right away I KNEW I was not getting rid of that stocking! It had his name on it.
Eventually I got myself together and put the silly music maker back in the keep pile, telling myself, maybe I'll part with it next year... And when all was said and done I was happy with the progress I had made and excited to be moving towards my goal. Unfortunately, the illusion of how easy this process was going to be, is gone now. This is going to be hard. I am going to have to pick up hundreds of things before I am done and ask myself, each time, "Do I need this? Does it serve a purpose? Does it add value to my life?", and if I can't say yes to any of those questions, I am going to have to let it go...
Wish me luck?!
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