The cost of clutter

This year when (as every year) Mr. Frye drills us for New Year's Resolutions, I was ready. I was actually so excited about my New Year's Resolution that I had started it before the new year actually began. Scott said that was cheating, but I am not aware of any such New Year's rule. My resolution was to organize my life. My plan was to tackle little things, bit by bit, and create a lifestyle of organization.

Anyone who knows me knows that I innately possess few organizational skills. Very few. It is quite unbecoming of a sailor, actually. My first task was to tackle my email inbox. At the time I had over 3,500 emails sitting in my inbox. The goal was to delete 20 per day until I got to 50. Then, I would keep it under 50. Always. I am currently at 350 emails in my inbox. I am still deleting daily. I feel good.

Beyond tackling email, I found I needed help. I needed guidance and I needed inspiration. My past quests to organize myself were hit with an immediate roadblock. I don't know HOW. Truly. I did not know the steps. I didn't know that I didn't know the steps until the process of moving from the house to the boat this past summer. Lucky for me, I have a retired mother-in-law who DOES know how to organize. Linda came and spent a few days with us and I immediately knew I was in the presence of an organizational expert. I watched and learned. I could see that I did not possess the skills to make sense of piles of stuff. Not yet.

To learn how to organize myself, I went online and I found wonderful, insightful answers. I found bloggers who DO know how to organize and simplify life. To begin with, I found Unclutterer. From Unclutterer, I learned small steps and tricks. I learned WHY we hold on to things we no longer need.

Then I began to learn the benefits of simplifying. Leo at ZenHabits has become a good digital mentor for that. Ever so slowly, I am learning how to let go of my stuff: physical, digital, emotional.

In many ways, right now is the perfect time for this. My physical stuff is packed up into boxes that I can readily access, but don't need. A few weeks ago, during a drive to Seattle, I started thinking about my boxes of dishes. I love these dishes. They were a slow accumulation of Christmas and birthday gifts from my former mother-in-law. They have beautiful colors and textures. They are heavy, thick, and solid. They are bad for a boat, but they are beautiful. They are beautiful plates, bowls, and mugs, all packed away into boxes. Scott and I really have no intention of re-entering a life on land (other than winter house-sitting, if it comes up). During my drive I pictured reopening these boxes, years and years from now. Would I still find them beautiful, or will my tastes have changed? What if the Graebels move? I'll need to move these boxes to a new storage home. I started to think that it was not actually worth having boxes of beautiful dishes packed into the Graebel's shop attic. Having a potential use for them 10 years from now does not make them worth holding on to now. Plus, though they are beautiful, they are still from a life very, very, different than the one I am living now. The more I thought about it, the more silly it all seemed to be. I began to see that I did not benefit in any way from these boxes of dishes. These boxes have a current emotional cost. When I need to move them next, they will have MORE actual cost than the first cost of getting them across the US to begin with.

Somewhere, in one of the blogs I was reading, it said that finding an appreciating home for your stuff made it easier to give away. I started to wonder who would like my dishes. Then, inspiration hit. Who else liked these dishes given to me by me ex-mother-in-law? My ex-husband did. I had one of those wonderful 21st century divorces where the couple truly departs as friends, and can call each other up, out of the blue, and ask: Do you want those dishes your mom gave us 10 years ago?

It is perfect. My ex has just completed his doctorate in some weird nuclear physics field and is moving to Tennessee to start a new career at Oak Ridge. He will, for the first time since we split, be not living with house-mates, and will appreciate a nice set of dishes. So I called him, and yes, he'd like them, and we'd split the cost of shipping them. The project had begun.

I found myself up in the attic, digging out heavy, but appropriately labeled boxes. I brought them down to the house, and re-packed them for shipping. I also brought another sizeable box that I thought contained a bit of art he was interested in. The boxes of dishes were easy. The box of miscellaneous other house stuff was a different story. The first time I opened it, I quickly re-closed it and put it in the hallway to be dealt with later. I started to regret that I ever started the project to begin with. Why hadn't I just let the boxes where they were? I had no idea what to do with all that stuff. A few weeks passed. Finally it caught up with me. My ex is moving next week, and my "later" had come to deal with this box.

Today I emptied it out on the floor and Scott and I decided what to keep, what to give to Linda (yes, you've acquired another box of stuff), and what will go to Goodwill. In the end, we'll keep about 3 things, we put about 15 in a box for Linda, and I'll give about anther 15 things in the Goodwill box.

Tomorrow I will ship the dishes, and hopefully make a stop at Goodwill as well. Linda's box will live in the hallway until she returns to decide what she wants to keep and what she wants me to send to Goodwill as well. In all, I got about 6 boxes emptied from the shop attic. It is actually probably about 10% of what was up there. I feel good.

Another blog I just recently found had a post title Purge Just 7 Things – A Weekend Challenge. I took her up on that challenge, and I am glad I did. I will continue to do so.

All of this is really about boat-dwelling, and the type of lifestyle Scott and I are working toward. We both realize that life is too complicated and needs to be continually simplified in order to gain the freedom we are striving for.

I have a lot more to organize and simplify. I have a lot to let go of. Luckily, I'm not in a rush. My goal isn't to get organized, it is to be organized. And my goal is to enjoy the journey. Hopefully much of that journey is spent just floating along, at our own pace of life.

Cheers,
Mandy