You Can't Have Everything.

Where would you put it?

In my home, there are 4 people.

There is also:
*2 houses (!!!!!)
*9 television sets
*5 PC computers
* 2 laptop computers
*3 or 4 video game systems
*5 DVD players
*4 cellular phones
*2 refrigerators
*3 freezers
*2 stoves
*2 sets of washer/dryer
*4 Sofas
*Countless movies
*4 cars (mind you, one of the persons in my home is not yet old enough to drive)
*1 motorcyle
*2 dogs
*1 cat

You get the idea. Its actually pretty sickening.

One of mine and Jim's resolutions this year is to become "minimalist". What does that mean? As defined by Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist "Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it." In other words, it is to rid ourselves of that which no longer serves a purpose to us. Our purpose is to enjoy more time together as a family. To love more and clean less. It has become apparent that the things that we own have come to own us.

Society has taught us that we must have *this* in order to be "all that". TV commercials flood our brains every day with the things we should own, and how to get them. We're told we are nothing if we don't have a big house, 42 TVs and fast cars. We are "sheeple" - we do what they tell us to, and what each other does. We've somehow lost our ability to make those decisions for ourselves - the Best Buy commercials make them for us!!

I've been laughed at already since starting this project. That's ok. I don't mind. People are going to laugh, because they don't understand. Its not what they've been taught, its not the way of life that they know. That's ok. Hopefully they will read my blog and learn!

I'm resurrecting this blog for those that want to follow us on our journey to minimalism. We don't even know what that journey looks like right now. All I know for sure is that it will involve selling and/or giving away "anything that distracts us from the things we most value." I don't know what those things are yet - the things that I value, or the things that I'll sell. But we will figure it out as we go along. And its not going to just be about selling our possessions. Its about simplifying our lives - organizing, streamlining. For example, I believe at this point I have at least 5 email addresses and I'm betting Jim doesn't even know how many he has. One of my goals will be to simplify that down to ONE email address, and to make sure the spammers take a hike. One of my emails has over 10,000 unread emails in it, simply because I cannot keep up with all the junk that gets thrown into it every day. That one may just get deleted altogether.

Does any of this sound familiar??

And rest assured, at the end of this we will NOT be living in a grass hut with dirt floors. We're reasonable people. We will be living in a house, and watching TV and playing video games, just like we do now. We'll just be doing it in a smaller house, with less TVs and video games, and hopefully more time to enjoy each other!!

Jim and I have agreed that we will be taking turns posting on this blog. Be sure to check back often!


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