Collecting moments, not things.

We finally broke down and cleaned out our storage unit (no, this picture was not our belongings but looked very similar).  We managed to fit all of our belongings into my brother's unit so we don't have to pay for storage anymore. YAY US!!! Allow me to elaborate on our task, please.

In our tiny unit, filled with knicks and knacks, was where our memories were contained.  We had old furniture given to us by our families, fake flowers that decorated my room in college, notes from friends, old home movies that contain ALL OF THE FEELINGS that I wasn't afraid to show in my younger days, Andrew's boxes (upon boxes) of childhood memorabilia, and post-it notes filled with my favorite quotes through the years.  

This might be "stuff" to you, but to me, it is a reminder... I DID THE DAMN THING. 

I wrote papers for school, I got my heart broken and survived, I moved back home from college, readjusted to living with my folks again, moved away from my folks (again) and fell in love with being alone, I discovered who I was and found love (lasting love) again along the way.

I look forward to the day when Andrew and I will have a place big enough to fit the rest of our possessions. Right now we live in a one bedroom apartment so we obviously do not have enough space for 2 bedroom sets. That being said... our goal during this clean out was getting in the mindset of trying to collect moments, not things going forward. I'm proud we were able to part with some of the belongings for our cleaning challenge and show ourselves we could "adult" if given the proper time and dedication.

Until next time...

simplify.

Simplify has been my word for 2016 and as peaceful as that may sound it's been a lot harder than I expected. Especially when I'm like "Give me all the things". I'm a collector by nature and not that there's anything wrong with it, but I'm trying to embrace the simple side of life.

THE DILEMMA:  We have too much stuff. I dread dusting and cleaning, because it takes forever to clear everything off shelves, dressers, tables, etc to clean. So it's time to organize the clutter and it's time to simplify our lives and excess. I have come up with a solution to the problem at hand (too much stuff), and once we face it and do something about it, our place will feel a little more pleasant.

THE RESOLUTION:  Take it one day at a time. When I try to purge our entire home of clutter it can become overwhelming.  By allotting a few minutes a day to this project, I will see a large difference without setting myself up for failure from the beginning. Then we will sell it at a garage sale and what we don't sell, we can donate to Goodwill. I'm attempting A Bowl of Lemons 31 Day Purge challenge in my effort to complete this task. So wish me luck. 

Until next time...