Lynn Tribbling

My New Year’s resolution is not to lose weight, but to lose stuff. My living room is obese: bulging with furniture, bloated with knickknacks, and corpulent with collections .YIKES! It is time to reduce! I teach courses on Downsizing and Home Staging. In 2016, I pledge to practice what I preach!

 

Here is my plan. Stop procrastinating. I am not a hoarder. I am a procrastinator. Most junk is just delayed decision-making. I need to hire a helper to start sorting and taking action. Having a neutral, third-party around accelerates the process. Their emotional detachment will speed things up and anesthetizes any pain of letting go of the past. Even if I cannot decide exactly what to do with all the treasures, it is a good idea to start packing some away. This triggers a healthy detachment process. Out of sight out mind.

 

The goal is to eliminate 25% of the content of my home and especially the antiquated residue that fills my closets. I am going to get rid of clothes, purses, shoes, pills, perfume, shampoos, kitchen gadgets, spices, towels, linens, and ugly doodads that I have not used in the past 12 months. For 30 minutes every day, I am going to discard heaps of old papers, files, magazines, photos and memorabilia. I will cleverly digitize important documents and store everything on a tiny hard drive. I pledge to get rid of dozens of dusty old books including Teach Yourself Urdu. (?) Everything is on-line now anyway. Why keep it when I can google it? I am going to dump, ditch, donate and divest in a frenzy of de-cluttering. Ironically, items that we  regard as treasures, often have little objective value or current utility. Life goes on without all this unnecessay stuff!

 

My paramount resolution is to stop buying things. Resist the impulse. Just say “No”. 

I am going to take the challenge. For the first 60 days in 2016, I am not going to purchase anything I do not absolutely need. 

 

Already, I can feel the giddy thrill that comes with liberation. Think about it. We are all on a journey to minimal. I visit my Mother everyday in a nursing home where she has four nightgowns, three drawers and one closet. She is blissfully detached from the tyranny of stuff. She resides in an enviable state of nirvana: simple, pared-down, serene. She is free. The best things in life are not things, but the abundance of love that surrounds us. Dump the junk. Keep the love.