Minimalist Living: Decluttering for Joy, Health, and Creativity (9 page)

Consider journaling your answers to these questions, or recording them on video or a voice recorder.

Digitization refers to moving things from analog form to a digital form that can be read or accessed by a computer. Often it means scanning photos, cards, certificates, letters, journal entries, and memorabilia so that the scanned image can be stored on a computer as a digital file. If you’ve used a digital device, such as a digital video or voice recorder to record your thoughts on your meaningful items, then you’ve already digitized them. If you’ve handwritten them, or used a typewriter, then you’ll want to take the additional step of scanning them so that you’ll have a digital copy.

Digital files take up almost zero physical space. However, you’ll need to have a computer, a scanner, and probably a digital voice recorder and camera to digitize yourself. If you’d prefer not to do it yourself, there are companies who will take care of this task for you. One such company is ScanDigital. Others you can check out are DigMyPics and ScanCafe. These companies will often allow you to send a shoebox of photos. They return the photos by mail along with the digital files.

Once you’ve turned your memories into digital files, it’s vital that you ensure they are properly backed up. Computers are susceptible to crashing and viruses, and like physical items, to destructive forces like fires and floods. You can back up your digital files by making copies that you store on an external hard drive and keep in a fire-proof safe. You can also back up files with cloud-based storage on the internet using a web application that can be accessed from anywhere in the world with a special username and password that you set. While not susceptible to computer crashes, floods, or house fires, the cloud isn’t perfect. There are, as is always the case with the internet, security concerns. However, if you use a reliable and well-established service, like Dropbox, those risks are minimal. Online web applications like Gmail, Facebook, and many more are clouds since files that you don’t delete are stored securely online.

If you're a scrapbooking hobbyist and would like to move your photos to digital form while still enjoying scrapbooking,
Google “digital scrapbooking” to see how many people share your interest and are learning and teaching about how to transfer the hobby to an online form. If you want to keep copies of your image files in digital form, but also print some to have on hand, consider using a photo-book designing service. These online services allow you to upload your digital photo files and design a book including the photos and whatever text you’d like to add. They print the book for you, often allowing you to choose from a variety of sizes, and ship it to your doorstep.

Miniaturizing, in the decluttering sense, means taking something and somehow decreasing the amount of space it takes up, usually by keeping only a part of it. An example of miniaturizing is framing a piece of lace from your mother’s already torn wedding veil and displaying it next to a photo of her wearing her gown and veil on the special day. You might give away or repurpose the remainder of the lace from the veil, but keeping a small piece of it brings texture and atmosphere when displayed next to the photo of your mother on her wedding day. Another example of miniaturizing is keeping only a symbolic selection of a group or collection of similar things. This might be appropriate if, for example, you’ve been saving your children’s sports trophies. Take a picture of all of them, and then save just one or two of the group. Miniaturizing is often the answer to the question of how to save the spirit of your meaningful items without allowing them to take over your space.

CHAPTER NINE

Maintaining Minimalism

“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality of life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” – Linda Breen Pierce

Are you inspired? Happy with the changes you’ve made or dreamed about making to your life and home? That’s wonderful! Let’s consider how to keep our positive momentum going. To maintain our new, healthier, happier lifestyle, we must choose to do so. We must choose not only to do something differently, i.e., not buying as much stuff and clearing out our old stuff, but to be someone different. In much the same way as dieters are told to begin thinking of themselves as thin even before weight loss occurs, we must begin to think of ourselves as minimalists from now on. Minimalist living must not be only a label; it must become a way of life.

How do you make this lifestyle an ongoing habit? Once you're done paring down, and, in fact, even before you're finished, you must cultivate a new attitude toward your home. If you keep up the old habits of regularly bringing things into your home, all of your hard work will be void and your new minimalist lifestyle mooted. To keep extra things out once you’ve cleaned and cleared your home will require a paradigm shift -- a change in your beliefs and attitudes.

Let’s look at some of the old attitudes and beliefs about home you may have had:

•       
  I’m unaware of or not responsible for my home’s atmosphere.
  
•       
  Stuff just gathers and multiplies like it has a mind of its own.
  
•       
  I don’t really notice how or why my stuff is affecting (or afflicting) me.
  
•       
  When someone gives me something, I keep it in case they come over and ask about it.
  
•       
  I’m overwhelmed and stressed when I move around my house.
  
•       
  I can’t find what I need because I have too much clutter.
  
•       
  I have closets or storage areas that are unusable because they are loaded to the gills.
  
•       
  My house is just an ordinary place where I live in the spaces around my stuff.
  

Hopefully, the attitudes above are now shifting to these new attitudes:

•       
  I create and take responsibility for the atmosphere of my home.
  
•       
  I am in control of all my stuff.
  
•       
  Everything around me is there for my use, pleasure, or to add meaning to my life.
  
•       
  When someone gives me something, I keep it if I like it; otherwise I give it away with no guilt.
  
•       
  I love moving around my home; being clutter free gives me a sense of freedom.
  
•       
  I easily and quickly find what I need when I’m looking for it.
  
•       
  I have available storage space for gathering future clutter on its way out the door.
  
•       
  My home is a sacred place.
  

Attitude shifts are a result of new habits. Habits are affected by attitudes. Therefore, adjust both your actions and your attitudes. Take to heart the proverb, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Attitude is what you “thinketh” in your heart, and your actions will reflect those attitudes. To shift your attitude, it helps to adjust your behavior and habits. Behaviors take around 30 days to become ingrained as habits, so don’t expect to change yourself overnight. Here are some new habits you can begin working on that will result in your ability to maintain a minimalist lifestyle:

Repeat affirmations daily. Tell yourself “I am in control of my stuff,” or other ideas from the “new attitudes” list above.

Study places you consider sacred such as churches, temples, or beautiful spots in nature. See how they are treated and designed, whether by humans or by nature, and apply what you learn to your home.

Post your Minimalist Mission Statement in your home permanently. Perhaps incorporate it into your décor by framing it, cross-stitching it onto a pillow, or stenciling it onto a wall or favorite piece of furniture.

Put things back or clean things up immediately after using them.

Become the gatekeeper of your home, making sure that for every non-consumable item that comes in, one goes out.

Even
if you don’t have a lot, a home can look cluttered if everything isn’t in its place. Yet, sometimes, life prevents us from putting everything away immediately after we use it. More often, the people we live with may not share our desire to have “everything in its place, and a place for everything.” For these days, and people, enter the pickup basket. Your pickup basket is where things gather during moments in the day when you don’t have time to put them back. It keeps the clutter off surfaces and stores it for you until you have time to put it away. When you do have time, it makes it easier on you because you can pick up the basket and walk it around the house, depositing things in their rightful places.

Maintaining minimalism should be fun. If you don't get some satisfaction or enjoyment out of i
t, you won't keep it up. Find a way to make it fun for you, whether that means playing music, turning it into a game, or getting others to help you.

Life Events

Big life events and transitions are the biggest obstacle to keeping your minimalist habits. Moving to a new place, moving in with a partner or getting married, and having a baby are all massive transitions with their own challenges to maintaining minimalism.

Moving to a larger home adds temptation to the list of challenges. With all that extra space, it may be all you can do not to purchase things simply to fill it. If you have the space,
it’s much easier to bring things home. Yet if the outcome of having a larger home is filling it with stuff you don’t use or need, then your new home will just add stress to your life, which is probably not the reason you chose to move into a larger home in the first place. To fight the urge to fill empty space, consider why you decided to move into a larger home. Was it to have more room for children, or visitors? In that case, set up the extra space to reflect its intended purpose. If you have a guest bedroom, make if comfortable for guests with new sheets, soft towels, and anything else your guests need to have an enjoyable stay with you.

Moving in with a partner or getting married is a huge life transition that brings with it a chance to double your
belongings, if not triple them. When two people live together, they must agree, or at least tolerate, the others’ attitude toward stuff. This can be difficult, as attitudes toward our surroundings vary widely. Using the strategies from Chapter Five, you may be able to decide whether the two of you will be minimalists together, or whether you need to pursue minimalist living on your own.

Adding a new bundle of joy to your family is another special case where your normally minimalist lifestyle can suddenly turn into a festival of stuff
collection. “Mommy guilt,” or “Daddy guilt,” can come into play when your quest to be the best parent you can be is taken advantage of my marketers and well-meaning friends. The former may tap into your desire to keep your baby happy and safe by telling you that their product will fit the bill. The latter may innocently suggest this or that product as a way to improve your baby’s life. If you're new to parenthood, you may doubt your own abilities and think you need to take action on stuff-related advice. Fortunately, this is not the case. Lynn from a comment on an article called “31 and Pregnant: Minimalist Mom vs. Baby Stuff,” on
Chambanamoms.com
, comments, “My daughter is almost 8 months old. Don’t let the hyperbole get to you. These things are actually absolutely necessary: a place for the baby to sleep, diapers and wipes, things to keep the baby warm, a place to bathe the baby, a car seat, and food for the baby. That’s it. Everything else is a nice-to-have.”
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Holidays and Celebrations

On occasions when gift exchanges are expected, how do we maintain minimalism? One way is by focusing on our inner lives and our relationships during the holidays and during other celebrations, like birthdays. Focusing on what's important during the holidays seems to be getting increasingly difficult. Recently a friend of mine posted her thoughts on Facebook after getting ads from companies that were open on Thanksgiving Day:

Rarely do I ever post frustrations on Facebook but I am so mad after checking my email this morning and seeing promotional emails from several stores that I frequent saying they are open ON thanksgiving... As if midnight isn't bad enough!!!!!!
I unsubscribed from their email lists and left an emotionally charged comment. Although I am only one person I let them know I would never step foot in their stores again!!! I encourage all of you to do the same!!!!
This is the problem with our society the obsession with things and not relationships is tearing families and our world apart!
Please look at the places you frequent most! If they are open today don't go back and send a message to these money hungry CEOs!
Sorry Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone gets time with family AT HOME.

We can each make a difference if we make it clear that shopping is not what the holidays are about.

Now that your home is decluttered, save yourself the time and energy of having to do that again by keeping it this way. Once the editing and disposal process is finished, you’ll only be maintaining what you’ve done, which takes a lot less energy than the original process. In the next part of this book, we’ll talk more about why minimalism is so important to a fulfilled, purposeful life.