This week for Throw it Out Thursday another blast from the past! We are going to continue to talk about minimalism. I’m digging out all the minimalist blogs I’ve done since I discovered them and this one is from 2017. Let me know what you think!

When I first thought about minimalism, because one of my people brought it up to me and many others who follow me were interested, I did some digging. I discovered TheMinimalists.Com and other sites dedicated to the topic of minimalism,

I asked myself, why should we even care about it? In our Tidy Tutor World, we know that our number one obstacle is too much stuff, and what I teach is that we regularly get rid of things, so I thought why should we think about minimalism at all?

But, to my surprise, what I learned was that living a minimalist lifestyle is a different mindset than the desire to live an organized life is; which is what The Tidy Tutor is all about, living an organized life.

I couldn’t believe that people who were very organized were seeking to live a minimalist lifestyle.

Not because they were tripping on their excess, or because they were living in a mess, but just because they wanted to rid themselves of everything they didn’t need, want anymore, or use.

I learned that something happened to them, they found that their lives became happier when they did this, so I had to check it out.

I decided to dejunk things on a regular basis like we do normally, BUT thinking like a minimalist.

I discovered that I was attached to my things much more than I thought that I was.

I found out that my things were a part of my identity and then I started to question my it. I asked myself, “Am I what I perceive myself to be?”

When I was a young mom and married, I was something specific, everything that came along with that reality of being a young mom and wife is what I manifested in my life, the things that I had around me.

Also, being the nationality that I am, in the region of the world that I live in, I became aware that we all have specific things that are attached to us because of who we are, but once we are not that person anymore we don’t realize that we need to change things…

I’m not a mom with young children anymore. When I looked at my things in a different way, as an over 50 divorced woman with grown children, I saw my things differently.

It helped me to see also that there are opportunities that could come to me, but because of the things I had in my life, I wouldn’t be able to take advantage of them necessarily, because I would have to address and deal with those things.

So, for this Throw it out Thursday, when you go around your house to dejunk, I want you to see what you don’t need, what you don’t want, and what you don’t use, in a different way.

Look at your things as who you are today, not who you have been for so many years.

Ask yourself, do the things I have today, serve me? Reflect on who I am based on who I am today?

Does this hold me back in anyway? Is it something that adds value to my life?

I asked myself, what would happen if I took this thing that I was holding onto, such as my china, and it wasn’t a part of my world anymore? Would anything change for me? Why do I have the china anymore? I never use it.

I did this very thing I am asking you to do with my front porch and lots of things did change. I realized a whole bunch about myself I wouldn’t have if I didn’t challenge the ownership of those things, and if I should keep them.

Letting go of the things that were in there was really scary, and I thought I would regret it, but I didn’t regret it at all. In fact, it helped me grow and see myself in a new and improved sort of way.

I really thought it was going to be devastating, but I have to tell you the feeling of freedom it gave me I am still experiencing.

Let me know if do this. Let me know what you come up with. Let me know what you think about your identity, and is that who you actually are?

Do the things you own have a hold on you that you didn’t realize before doing this exercise?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Much Love to you!

Kathy
The Tidy Tutor