Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Does it bring you joy?

There's this idea I recently heard of, a way to better organize your life and make space for what matters most. I think it started with a book, but I only read an article about it. The biggest piece I came away with is the simple idea to hold objects in your hand and ask if it brings you joy. If it doesn't, then get rid of it. Could it really be that easy?! I admit that I have hoarder tendencies. I worry about getting rid of things that I might need later. It feels wasteful, the thought that I'll just buy it again the next time I want something. And for me lots of things have sentimental value so I try to justify that reason for holding on to things. I hate throwing away sentimental stuff memories are hugely important to me. I've gotten much better about it though, when we moved into this little 1 bedroom apartment we did a LOT of downsizing. But we kept a lot of stuff in storage, and they kept raising the cost, and we eventually closed it out and moved stuff into my parents basement after doing another big purge. And then my parents moved and we just can't afford another storage unit so we transferred all that stuff to our patio. There it all sits, stacked in a pile, taking up precious room.

We told ourselves that we HAVE to go through every single box and tote and seriously consolidate everything into as little as possible. I think about moving all the time. A garage, a storage closet, or even 2nd bedroom... Oh how different our home life would be if we weren't surrounded all the time. It's starting to feel suffocating. We really have too much stuff to live comfortably in this place, and since we can't move we need to make it work here!

When I start thinking about how long it's been since I've posted in this blog I feel overwhelmed. Nothing since Makena's birthday in January?! It's JUNE! There is so much to catch up on! So many things have happened since then and I don't want to forget any of it! But the reality is that those memories have already mostly faded. I usually look back on photos or read my facebook posts to fill in the months.

But back to purging. I'm purging on a more personal level too. Today I deactivated my facebook account. Basically that means I have disappeared, and can't access anything, but it's only temporary. I thought about what else I could do with my time, instead of mindlessly scrolling through my feed and refreshing the page. It's only been a few hours but already I have caught myself wanting to click on facebook. (I've deleted the app and bookmark, otherwise I'm sure I would have clicked without even thinking about it. It's like being on auto-pilot, I check facebook whenever I'm on my phone or the computer.)

The first thing I thought about doing after I hit that deactivate button (well, the first thing I thought about when I had a moment of silence to think about anything after I set up the tent for the kids to play with and made lunch and played with blocks and cleaned up and gave the kids a bath and got a snack for them, etc...) was updating this blog. Keeping my memories here really matters to me. It brings me joy. It feels important, like a little security net, knowing my kids will have access to this some day.

So in addition to getting stuff out of my life that I don't need, I'm going to try to set aside time in my day for things that bring me joy, like being better about posting here!