The wife and I near the end of another successful purge of material items from our home, 496 items, one for every numbered day in the month of January. One item for the first day, two for the next, and so on through the month. And they're not trivial items, including some books that were easy to hang on to, hand made ceramics, and irreplaceable souvenirs from trips.
Have we used the item recently? Do we need it? Do we love it? Most material things, things we keep in the house and ignore for sometimes years, are only burdens, weights on a sense of freedom. They're things we choose to keep in our care, whether we have to dust them or not. If we wanted to pack up and move to Italy, for example, we would need to deal with the items, whether we sell, donate, or set them on fire.
Right now many of the purged items await their fate in our dining room, and there I see some things that were projects long delayed. Most things have gone to the thrift store; some, gifts from generous friends and family, have gone to distant thrift stores.
Our 496 or so items are merely a drop in the bucket. We've had a brief discussion about extending the purge through February, so if you're in the market for a beer-making kit, rarely used, or wine-making items, shoot me a line or watch the online markets. We might lighten our burdens further.
Edit: Shortly after posting the message above this morning, I read an article in the Guardian indicating that Marie Kondo, the Japanese woman known for preaching de-cluttering, has decided she now has other priorities--her three kids. Now, she says, her house is messy. So there.
