room made

I have a hunch project make room could be a long-time commitment to continuing to live simply, or at least more simply.

But, the good news is that I'm starting to (finally) come to a place where I don't have all that much excess stuff. Of course, I still have much more than I absolutely need. Six summers overseas have taught me that; for three months each time, I lived just fine on what I could carry in a (large) backpack. (And that backpack included a place to sleep, a (blow up) bed to sleep on, all my dishes, cook stove, water filter, food, clothes, etc!...Really everything I needed!)

Now, of course, I have a lot more than that (furniture, kitchen stuff, artwork and books namely) but my clothes probably about fit in one clothes basket (rather than 3 or 4: yikes!), I only kept a small basket of most important knick knacks (rather than random knick knacks all over the place) and I've skimmed all my papers down to a set of binders.

I feel like I've organized my whole life over the past three months or so. And it's really freeing. Letting go of stuff (even stuff I liked) has been a good exercise for me. It seems, somehow, like there's more breathing room in my life. (There's certainly more space in my house!) As I've written before, the goal was to be more ready for whatever's next in my life, whether now or two years from now.

But also, really strangely, I feel less anxious too. I'm not sure if there's any correlation there, but perhaps. Does stuff create anxiety? I think maybe it does for me? Perhaps I think clearer and feel better in open spaces. Or maybe it's just the sense that I'm not weighed down; it would be easy to pack up and move anywhere; I like that. I'm realizing, though I love coziness (and hope my homes will always be cozy), I want adventures & friendships to take value over that.

Anyway, just some random thoughts. It's been nice to start a resolution and actually make some progress on it.