Stuff and dust, it’s time to go. Day 189/365

     It has been four months since I posted on this blog. It isn’t that I’ve lost the desire to get rid of stuff; far from it. Rather, it has been my lack of will to do anything about it. My bad. My original intention, to let go of something for 365 consecutive days, failed long ago. Currently my goal is that on the 365^th day of purging our home will only retain things we really need--things of utilitarian value as well as carefully selected treasures of beauty, such as pictures, books, photographs and a few favorite sitters. I’m half way there and hope to be living in this simple bliss by December 31, 2015. You’ll know how well I’m doing by my posts; if I post, I’m making progress.

     Here’s what I wrote today on my www.acottagebythesea.net blog, which is about silence, solitude and simplicity.

Again I’m dealing with all the stuff (and dust) in this house. I like to say that I want simplicity in my life to be represented by a very few things—two sets of dishes, three changes of clothing, the books I really will read-- which may be why I love being at the cottage. As you might imagine, the owner from whom I rent has things all over the place, but they aren’t mine to care for, consider, or even dust. Here at home, however, the responsibility is mine and my husband’s.

     It has come to me that I am dealing with a two-pronged concern. The first, and real one, is all the stuff. The second is all the thinking I do about the stuff, all the thoughts that consume my mind. Thoughts about too much stuff, the time it takes to deal with it, how and where to get rid of it, how to even begin….and on and on. The bottom line is that I just want all the excess stuff to go away.

     As I sit her writing, I realize that what is more important to me than simplicity of things is simplicity of thought about them. This morning, before 9AM, I organized the mud room. Summer towels to the attic, a mess of extension cords out to my husband’s work bench for him to deal with, books and white elephants bagged for the church fair. I did all this purging and organizing without pre-planning or thinking. It was simple.

     My plan, after I post this on my cottagebythesea.net and lettingofstuff.blogspot.com blogs, is NOT to think about dealing with stuff until tomorrow morning, when I’ll take on some other area, perhaps just one shelf or drawer. Can simplicity of thought lead me to simplicity of things?

Shower curtain and rod, it’s time to go. Day 188/365

Oops, I meant to post this 6/26/14     
We’ve been allowing little leaks through the ceiling ever since we installed the upstairs shower thirty years ago. We relied on a shower curtain to contain the water. Bad idea. It took us years to realize the cause of the water stains on the tin ceiling in the downstairs front room. 

(Ready to go to the dump.)

   

 Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of how bad it was, but here’s the newly painted one, with the tiffany chandelier my husband found at the put-and-take. 

    Now in the bathroom there is a cozy glass door, all for $100. With company coming for the 4^th, let them shower away. 

Dead apple tree. Day 187/365 It’s time to go.

      When we bought our house the apple tree in the back yard was producing apples every fall. I must admit they were scrawny and bitter, and I confess we never sprayed them as the previous owner had suggested. 

     Each year the tree became more pathetic than the year before, and then last winter a blight hit apple trees in the area. We would drive along and see dead ones wherever we went.

   



  So the other day my husband hacked down most of the branches and then decided to leave a tall stump for decoration.

Window blinds. Day 186/365 It’s time to go.

     It is time to let go of the bedroom window blinds that were in the house when we moved in twenty-six years ago. We replaced the fabric. but it is now faded and ripping apart.

     Why didn’t we do this sooner, we ask ourselves? The new Roman blinds, actually darken the room and are pleasing to the eye. Because they take up a lot less room, we can feel satisfied that we have less stuff in the house. After all, that’s our goal—well, most of the time.