Simplify

With yet another move on the horizon a desire is growing inside me to simplify life more by decreasing the amount of stuff we have. This is something I've done each time we've moved, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes out of feeling overwhelmed by possessions. I did it in 2006 when we moved to North Carolina, again in 2008 when we moved to Virginia, again in 2011 when we moved to St Louis. Even though this move is just across town and we've both gotten rid of a lot of superfluous stuff there is still more that can go.

The philosophy with this move is, anything we can fit and use within the space we are moving into doesn't need to be kept. Right now everything we own fits into our apartment but one of our bedrooms is basically just a storage room. Everything in those boxes is not usable stuff simply because we can't get to it when needed. This has been the case for a few years now and I just don't want to do it anymore. 

Simply thinking about how free this will feel has me anticipating this move with excitement. Obviously it is going to be a great deal of work and will take me quite a bit of time to execute and pace myself but it will all be worth it. Besides I really enjoy designing a new space. Each move really forces me to rethink how I view and use my stuff and that's fun. 

We started painting the space this past weekend and will be doing the same thing this coming weekend. The whole place needs to be repainted, badly, there is no getting around it. Four of us worked for 2 hours and got the master bedroom taped and painted. That bit of shared worked completely overwhelmed my body. I'm still paying the price. This weekend I will only do taping and trim work, leaving the rolling to my husband and any helpers we can round up. 

Life sort of feels like a balancing act. No matter how balanced you may feel at any given moment something new or different will always come up and throw things off. Perhaps a sense of happiness or peace comes from our ability to adapt and find our way back to that balance. For me, I think I'll be better able to balance and adjust with fewer possessions and a simpler life.