Simplifying 101

     So I'm reading a book on clearing the clutter (cause as easy as it sounds, psychologically, I'm learning there are reasons for why we resist letting go of things) ... The book is called "Shed"and no, it has nothing to do with stand alone storage units. Nor is it what my dogs are doing in spades this time of year. Instead, "Shed" is a book about removing layer after layer of the clutter that we silently...even emotionally....wrap our lives in. But this clutter (I'm learning) is slowing us down, if not tripping us up in life.
     This "stuff" we've accumulated (most often mindlessly...more times than not we're oblivious) --this stuff comes in the form of unopened mail, backed up purchases and stuff we haul from car to counter just before collapsing ourselves once back inside our cocoons.
    As mentioned in previous blogs,when I get too concerned for the clutter, I like to flip on that Hoarder show, just to prove it could be worse. Not quite that bad, but I have to admit, I understand the hoarder's mindset when they get  just a lit-tle too sentimental about trashing a memory. I'm bad about that myself. I tend to cheer for the underdog in these moments.
     The trick (as I'm reading) is to retrain the brain, after all,  it's not like we need all this stuff, but at the same time, hey, my niece might...Or someone might...Heck, even "I" might, after all, my grand folks lived through one pretty nasty depression. There is something primal about our drive to surround ourselves in material items.
     Well tonight it hit me. Chapter 12. Name Your Chapter
     To help me and other clutter bug hopefuls everywhere, this author suggests we stop and ask: 1) where do I want to go next in life; and 2) name that chapter. (I'm good at this. I'm with you author. Keep going.) In so doing, we are asked to have pen in hand (All about this one too. Yep. I'm there. And...?) And we are to write down in one word, the theme for the next chapter in our lives. . .
     (Play Jeopardy Music Here.)
      Now I'm not sure about you, but as a Type A, ADD personality I'm big on goal setting and listing future plans. But even so, for me, labeling a life chapter could take all sorts of forms and timeframes. I decided to clump past themes by age brackets; first there were my high school years; then my college theme (i.e. graduate); I had a first job; then career change; first real job (or at least the one I fell in love with, i.e. broadcasting). Then came writing.
     There's not enough space to checker jump you from writing to here, but suffice it to say, cookbooks led to livelihood, led to coming home, led to gardening (and is now leading to...well, that's as far as I got on the "Shed" CD- Chapter 12).  Pretty sure writing is here to stay, and I want to think the critters are too. But regardless, it wasn't hard for me to come up with the theme I really wanted to focus on next and that is: SIMPLIFYING my Life!
     Easier said that done, and Lord knows I'm far from there yet, but if looking ahead helps me focus in steering this ship of a life in my next best direction, then I pick "Simplifying" to captain my boat. (My co-captain, I named "Minimalizing") ~
     Bottom line: I have too much stuff. I mean...How can one little girl, never married, no kids, accumulate so much stuff? Well...it ain't hard. Matter of fact, when I speak with friends --some of them married, some of them in my kinda boat (more like a dingy)...this seems to be the theme on a lot of folks' minds. Seems everywhere I turn I've got friends asking, "Where in the WORLD did all this stuff come from?"
     It wasn't hard to pick a chapter theme. I'm seriously dedicated to ridding my life of the excess. I think I need it to move forward. What's hard is knowing where to start...Knowing how to overhaul a lifetime of stuff I was drawn to buy and replace it with new habits that keep the place from backing up and energy pockets cleared for creating (heck, breathing)...Therein lies the challenge.
     A work in progress for sure, but as goes my life, so goes the blog. I have to say I'm not real proud of my basement right now, and furthermore, I'm a sucker for saving things that might someday be used elsewhere. (The curse of the creative mind--we never see it as trash...just something to be reinvented). But maybe for once, I'll put my own stuff out there and see what freedom feels like.
(I hear it's just another word for nothing left to lose~)