Originally posted on FaceBook July 25, 2017
Baby steps. Although small, baby steps can still move you forward to achieving your long-term goals. Sometimes, taking smaller, yet deliberate steps, can yield amazing results. Aligning our actions with our passions and life’s vision is not always easy……but is always rewarding.
Where do you start? Well for us, we needed to make some drastic changes in our lives. In order for us to move forward we had to get rid of things that had somehow, filled our lives and our closets to overflowing. The word “downsizing” seemed a little daunting. But downsizing is exactly where we needed to start. So we sat down and started penciling out a plan. While discussing what we were willing to part with, we realized that over the last 19 years, we had accumulated some very nice things. A beautiful home filled with expensive furniture and more rooms than occupants. Cupboards and closets stuffed full of things that “we may need someday”. Really? How many sets of dishes does someone really need? Don’t even mention all the tools, electronics, camping equipment, etc. Once we made the fundamental shift in our thinking about how we were living our lives, I became ill when I actually looked at all of our stuff.
Here is a quick story of the moment I realized I had to change:
Sometime last year, I decided that I no longer liked our earth tone, stoneware dishes. We had them for several years now and they were starting to show some wear from daily use. It was time to get new dishes and this time, I wanted a set of simple white dishes. Classic style and simplistic. I would be able to use them for any occasion by simply using accent colors when setting the table. I found a set that was going to be perfect. I wanted a square dinner plate. This set had simple lines with only a slight raised design, giving these plain white dishes a touch of class. Then I saw the price tag. They seemed a little pricey so I passed on buying them until I could try and sell my current set.
Fast forward a year or so….I am going through closets, boxes and storage bins that haven’t been opened in years, looking for those treasures of the past that would sell well at our upcoming garage sale. If I were going to go through the hassle of holding a sale, it needed to be worthwhile for me and those who chose to come to it. I dug deep into the closet that housed my “holiday dishes”. I hadn’t been in this closet for a couple years since we had spent last Christmas in Utah with our kids. I pulled out a few items that I didn’t feel I would ever use again when I discovered a few cardboard boxes on the very back of the shelf. What the heck was in those boxes? I proceeded to pull out the heavy unmarked boxes and placed them on the floor. I opened the first box, then the second and third. I sat back in amazement at first. There on the floor in front of me was a complete set of white dishes. When did I get these dishes? They were the style I was wanting to purchase last year, but never got around to it. As I examined the plain cardboard box that held the beautiful dishes, I found a simple white tag on the side. Then I remembered. I bought the dishes when we lived in Utah while at a thrift store. I remembered buying them thinking that “someone would be able to use these simple white dishes”. The price tag indicated that each box cost $2.00 so the entire set was purchased for $6.00. Then I remembered the perfect dishes I had seen in the store. If I had purchased them, they would have been $400 more expensive and functioned just the same as this $6.00 set. I sat on the floor for quite some time…crying. Why did I have so much stuff that I didn’t even use? It was the exact moment that I knew my life needed to change.
We held our garage sale. The things I thought would be difficult to part with simply did not matter anymore. The things we had were just things. Dust collecting and unused, we sold furniture, housewares, six crockpots, tools, camping equipment, over 600 DVDs, outdoor furniture, TVs, cameras and other electronics…..all things that were being stored for “in case we needed them”. Really? Who needs to re-watch 600 different movies? The funny part of all of this is, you could walk in to my house and not even know we had sold one item. The things we sold were not used in our daily lives and kept neatly stored out of sight.
“Organizing is well-planned hoarding.”
As we continue to push forward in our journey to live a simpler, more meaningful life, we realize we have a long way to go. Selling our home and holding an Estate Sale are big steps towards our life’s vision. Freeing up space but also freeing up our time. Regaining the time we spend on maintaining our lifestyle. Everything has a cost whether it is a monetary cost or a cost of time. We have come to realize that our time is so much more valuable than any item we own. We are committed to living our lives with meaning and added value. Our journey has just begun……and what a journey it will be.