Minimalista.

To bring a bit of clarity to my 2015 word, I should mention a few areas of my life in which I am aiming to improve.  The short list: being content with having less, health, and finances.  Let's start with the idea of having less.  Alex wrote a great post about comparison in this day with the internet, specifically social media, being such a prevalent aspect of our lives.  Admittedly, I desperately struggle with comparison syndrome. To begin working through my condition, I significantly parred down the number of blogs I followed; I unsubscribed from a ton of email lists.  Nonetheless, I still battle with the comparison trap daily.  A beautiful Instagram of my favorite home has me searching the internet for a specific, out of my price range, blanket that will certainly "complete" my living room.  That 40% sale JCrew just tweeted about?  Well, I obviously have to find a piece for my spring capsule wardrobe (which won't begin for another two months).  I have much to be desired when it comes to rehabilitating this comparison problem.  Nothing a little discipline can't fix.

Minimalism seems to be a hot topic.  My Pinterest feed has been bombarded with articles about minimal lifestyles, capsule wardrobes, and DIYs.  Last October, I decided to remedy a bit of my spending habits by trying my hand at a capsule wardrobe.  I learned a lot of lessons, and one was that I enjoyed not wasting as much time shopping and searching through my closet on a daily basis.  As winter rolled around and I planned for my second capsule, I did not do such a great job.  I practically ended up buying an entire new wardrobe thus making anything I saved in the previous months null.  I'm going to save the spending conversation for another day, so my point is that living with less clothing made me feel happier and more like me (due to my refined and true style discoveries).  If having less in my closet impacts my life in this way, what would be the impact of narrowing the clutter in other aspects of my life and home?

D and I are in the process of prepping our house to put on the market to sell.  This has created the perfect opportunity to organize and de-clutter our home.  We are stage one hoarders, so this process takes an immense amount of time and energy.  After completing three rooms, we have already learned so much.

It's ok to keep special items with memories attached.  I have so many things that have sentimental value.  I constantly think that I would love for these things to still be around if I have kids/when I die.  It is ok to keep these items but just store them!  We have an attic for a reason.  We got a lot of large boxes and plastic bins, then threw everything in them.  It was that easy.

I don't need that extra notepad from Target because it's cute.  It is becoming more important to me that most things I own have a purpose.  I can buy more notepads if I ever run out (which may never happen at the rate I've stocked up in the dollar section).  Just as I learned via my capsule wardrobe experimenting, a sale does not mean I have to buy.  Now does that candle on clearance have a purpose?  Yes!  With four pets and two litter boxes, candles are a necessity in our household.  Everyone has different needs, but I am attempting to buy more purposefully to reduce my clutter.

Less really is more.  Our living room has large built-in bookshelves which I adore.  I love having books and displaying them.  Over the course of the nine years D and I have been together, we've accumulated quite a few books and gotten rid of little to none.  After donating maybe 30% of the books and taking down almost all of the vases and random decor, our bookshelves look amazing!  We have said numerous times how this decluttering process actually makes us want to stay in our house longer.  It makes me appreciate the beauty of the house I fell in love with four years ago.

What steps do you take to live minimally and purposefully?