Letting go…

No, not of the Old Year, nor of loves, friendships or acquaintances, nor even the fact that I didn't blog much in the past few months, but rather of OBJECTS.

Traditionally I have not made any New Year’s resolutions since I was a teenager (ok so once in awhile as an adult I fell back into bad patterns, but never for long and never seriously, nor did I ever follow through!) nor did I this year.

However when a friend asked I did give it some thought, then when a day later I tossed out something that had been laying around for a long time: something that I never used, but that was going to always “come in handy” someday I had a sort of epiphany.

What if I got rid of one item per day – for a whole year!

Imagine 365 THINGS gone, out of the house and my life. Wouldn’t that be glorious.

So I started. Now this doesn’t mean that I can’t throw away more, but at least at the end of 2018 I will be 365 objects lighter!

“The” list

There are a lot of people and a lot of lists: the grocery list, the to-do list, the buy-it-if-on-sale list, the dinner party list, the Christmas card list, the birthday card list  and I use all of these at various times. However, when I start feeling submerged by things and paper, I have, in recent years, developed a method: “The” LIST

Entitled “Goals for the week / per day” it varies slightly depending up the mood and the season, but tries to encompass those things that I regularly don’t accomplish, or those that will make me feel more in control of my office, my health, my life.

One such was:

• 20 pages album
• 20 min. walk
• 20 pieces of paper, either sorted (filed) or tossed
• 5 things put away or tossed
• 5 scans (was trying to put legal documents into files on the computer as well as paper files)
• Italian – 20 minutes.

This weeks is slightly different:

• 10 pages of any photo album – had to reduce to 5 after the first day…
• 20 pieces paper sorted or tossed
• 10 things put away
• 10 things re-distributed or tossed
• clean one drawer, shelf, something

And when I say 10 “things” put away or tossed, yes, you can count the book put back in the bookshelf, the magazine given to a friend, a pair of shoes put back in the closet: no matter how little or how big, it all counts – the point is to do something, anything, or one does not have the motivation to continue.

By doing this at the end of 7 days I have actually accomplished something, if – we all know the feeling – not enough!  Using the example of the book in the bookshelf – at the end of a week, one has put away 35 books: now that’s an accomplishment.

Funny, though, how I never have to add “reading” or “play a computer game” to the list.