Fewer "things"

At the beginning of the year, I decided I would discard, give away, or otherwise get rid of at least one "thing" each week until I move. For me, this is a little bit more challenging than it sounds because of just how much I got rid of when I moved in October, but six weeks in, I still believe it's manageable.

The inspiration for this challenge came from Dinah Sanders' Discardia. The tagline for Discardia is "make room for awesomeness." I haven't read the book, but from the website, what I take from this idea (I could be totally off from Dinah's intent!) is that paring down things that don't matter or aren't important will make room for truly enjoying the things that are. If you know me you also know that I'm always seeking ways to reduce my impact on the environment, so this idea of letting go of "things" appeals to my green side as well.

A sampling of "things" no longer in my possession.

Since I don't know when I'll be moving, I don't know how many weeks of discarding I have left, though I anticipate as time passes it will get more difficult. In the little more than a month since starting, I've played it easy, recycling a hand-painted dish that broke in the move, sorting through paperwork to weed out what I don't need, cleaning out my art class portfolios (hope no one wanted a painting of a collage of an ostrich), mailing a book to a friend, and going through my intimates drawer*.

These things, for the most part, weren't hard to discard. They were easy decisions to make given the state of the things, or with the luxury of more time to logically sort things. There are no stories to tell about my separation from these things, which is why they were easy to let go. As this experiment progresses, I don't anticipate it will continue to be this easy, but I do anticipate it will be rewarding just having fewer "things."

*If this post has intrigued you about letting go of some things you don't need, and, if like me you've had your share of ill-advised bra purchases, please consider donating them this month to benefit the National Network to End Domestic Violence. New or gently worn bras can be dropped off at any Soma Intimates, or mailed to NNEDV. And, if you aren't sure if your bra qualifies, that's ok! They'll make sure any unusable items get recycled properly.