Simplifying Your Life
I was catching up on some blog reading when I happened upon “43 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life” on Zen Family Habits. For me, some of the ways are pretty cut and dried and easily doable (#8 “Keep your paper shredder on top of your recycling bin”); some require me to establish new habits (#28 “Create morning, daytime, and evening routines”); some cause me to wonder if the simplicity is entirely practical given my work (#2 “Process email only twice a day”); and some I already do (#21 “Cary (sic) a notebook and pen with you where ever (sic) you go”). One that I took on recently is #7: “Purge as much unneeded clutter as possible.”
I’d done mini-purges over the years but the big kahuna was the one I did over the course of 2.5 weeks in November/December 2009. During “The Big Purge” I went through everything (and I mean everything) in every room, closet, cabinet, shelf, drawer, and container, as well as the garage and my car, and recycled, returned, gifted, donated, and discarded roughly 1,000 items from my space. It wasn’t that I was at a lack for room. I felt weighted down. And I wanted to create my environments as energetic clearings for blessings, so it was up to me to do the blessing first.
Among the 1,000 were 100+ hangers that went to my dry cleaner (so much for the metal sculpture I wasn't going to make), the pool table and accoutrements that I gave to an AT&T DSL technician, and 343 pieces of clothing, housewares, linens, electronics, books, and I-forget-what-else that I donated to American Kidney Services. Until I actually looked and started putting things into their respective piles and trash bags, I had no idea about what and how much I had and how little I knew of what to do with some of it. When all was said and done I had cleared my space of both the physicality and the energy of all those things. Not only did I create more room, I also began breathing and sleeping better and it’s been easier for me to keep things organized and remain focused for longer stretches of time.
Soon after the earthquake happened in Haiti, a friend organized a large-scale effort to collect clothing, medical supplies, and other necessities for the survivors. And so began “The Big Purge, Part Deux,” wherein 100+ more items left my space for the people of Haiti. I find the phrase “killing two birds with one stone” a bit disturbing, but you get my meaning when I say that the collectors, receivers, and I all got something of benefit from this. One of my objectives for this weekend is to continue to purge more of what can be put to good use elsewhere.
By the way, spring cleaning time will be here before we know it, and the people of Haiti are going to need more than what’s already been given for years to come. Please consider donating the things that no longer serve a purpose in your life but would make a huge difference for them. If you are in the Atlanta, GA metro area, visit The Haitian Alliance website to find a collection center near you. Members of the organization may also be able to help those outside of Atlanta to locate reputable charities or relief organizations that are collecting goods for the Haitian people.
This work by Linda Jew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
I’d done mini-purges over the years but the big kahuna was the one I did over the course of 2.5 weeks in November/December 2009. During “The Big Purge” I went through everything (and I mean everything) in every room, closet, cabinet, shelf, drawer, and container, as well as the garage and my car, and recycled, returned, gifted, donated, and discarded roughly 1,000 items from my space. It wasn’t that I was at a lack for room. I felt weighted down. And I wanted to create my environments as energetic clearings for blessings, so it was up to me to do the blessing first.
Among the 1,000 were 100+ hangers that went to my dry cleaner (so much for the metal sculpture I wasn't going to make), the pool table and accoutrements that I gave to an AT&T DSL technician, and 343 pieces of clothing, housewares, linens, electronics, books, and I-forget-what-else that I donated to American Kidney Services. Until I actually looked and started putting things into their respective piles and trash bags, I had no idea about what and how much I had and how little I knew of what to do with some of it. When all was said and done I had cleared my space of both the physicality and the energy of all those things. Not only did I create more room, I also began breathing and sleeping better and it’s been easier for me to keep things organized and remain focused for longer stretches of time.
Soon after the earthquake happened in Haiti, a friend organized a large-scale effort to collect clothing, medical supplies, and other necessities for the survivors. And so began “The Big Purge, Part Deux,” wherein 100+ more items left my space for the people of Haiti. I find the phrase “killing two birds with one stone” a bit disturbing, but you get my meaning when I say that the collectors, receivers, and I all got something of benefit from this. One of my objectives for this weekend is to continue to purge more of what can be put to good use elsewhere.
By the way, spring cleaning time will be here before we know it, and the people of Haiti are going to need more than what’s already been given for years to come. Please consider donating the things that no longer serve a purpose in your life but would make a huge difference for them. If you are in the Atlanta, GA metro area, visit The Haitian Alliance website to find a collection center near you. Members of the organization may also be able to help those outside of Atlanta to locate reputable charities or relief organizations that are collecting goods for the Haitian people.
This work by Linda Jew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Posted by Linda Jew at 2/20/2010 3:31 AM 
Categories: Home,Simplicity,Helpful Hints,Inspiration
Tags: gifting recycle blessings donate
Categories: Home,Simplicity,Helpful Hints,Inspiration
Tags: gifting recycle blessings donate
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5/21/2010 1:26 PM
Psychic Rickshaw wrote:
When I did “The Big Purge” several months ago, the things I didn’t gift, throw out, or donate to a local charity were electronics that are problematic, unusable, and/or still containing personal information. I stored the works-when-it-feels-like-it dual cassette deck (I know, right – cassettes?), TV with a burned-out picture tube, prehistoric computer and cell phones, and other electronic equipment in a closet until I was ready to ... -
7/23/2010 10:42 AM
Psychic Rickshaw wrote:
It’s been roughly eight months since I did “The Big Purge” – the purging of nearly 1000 items that I no longer needed or wanted from my home – and I am in the process of doing a smaller version of it now. My energy has shifted since then, and the acts of re-feng shui’ing my home and letting go of things that don’t serve a purpose for me anymore are ways to align the energy ...
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