Best of Blog Challenge 2009 – Change of Place

No, that’s not a typo. The topic for today is “What’s the best change you made to the place you live?” And, after a bit of introspective consideration, I knew what I would write about. I have begun a process of downsizing my life and living space. My goal is to move from a 1600 sq ft 3 bdrm/2bath home to a MUCH smaller 1 bdrm w/loft log home sometime in the coming years.

This all came about from several blog posts I’ve run across over the past six months or so. Among the articles that have helped shaped my new view are this gem AND this gem from Zen Habits along with this from Simple. Organized. Life.  These are just a few examples of the information I’ve gleaned from the web recently along with my own determination to stop being influenced by Madison Avenue and Wall Street and all the excess and waste that they have rather successfully made us all believe is necessary to truly be “happy” in this modern world.  The funny thing is, as I read Leo and Dave and others,  I have determined that unplugging from the incessant advertising and pressure to “buy, buy, buy” has made my life MUCH less stressful.  And, along with not bringing new stuff into the house, I have determined that shedding the old stuff will make an even greater contribution to my happiness.

It’s funny.  I moved here seven years ago.  Before that, I moved out on my own after a nine year marriage ended.  I moved a bunch of stuff into my apartment.  I lived there for four years before my job situation changed, forcing me to relocate to Tennessee from California.  I dutifully packed up all my stuff, including at least a dozen boxes that were never unpacked when I moved into the apartment and moved the whole pile to Tennessee.  And, yes, you guessed it, shoved those very same unpacked boxes BACK into closets where some of them sit to this day.  Think about that, 12 boxes have not really seen the light of day for 11 years.  That stuff must be REALLY important to me, right?!??!  Actually, it clearly is THE LEAST important stuff to me, otherwise I would have unpacked it by now.

Now, to be honest, there are some family heirlooms and things that truly ARE important to me.  I just have yet to figure out a way to display them appropriately.  But, I am committed to dealing with the remainder of the clutter.  My goal is to shed an entire roomful of stuff by next spring.  I also plan on having two empty closets.  The goal is to make it so that when I do move into my smaller home, I will have NOTHING in storage.  And, to that end, I have begun removing boxes from my master bedroom closet so that they are at least out where I see them every day.  They sit on the floor taunting me to deal with them.  But, at least they are there and not hidden away – out of sight, out of mind.  It’s a start.

Wish me luck.  I’m somewhat lazy and procrastinational (if that is a word!) so let’s hope I can deal with that first pile and move on to the next!