When I was going through yoga teacher training, we studied the yamas and the niyamas. One of the yamas and niyamas that really stuck out to me is "asteya". While this Sanskrit word translates literally to "not stealing" it also breaks down to not hoarding materials you don't need and/or mindlessly consuming natural resources. Uff.
I looooove having stuff. And I have a lot of it. When Kyle and I moved out of your apartment last winter, I had major anxiety when paring down our stuff. We were going from a tiny apartment to his parents' basement to an unknown house. But we had lived at the apartment for three years and the amount of "stuff" you acquire without thinking about it is insane! I think I took 8 garbage bags full of stuff to the Goodwill, threw away several bags of stuff that no longer had value to me, and wouldn't have value to anyone else, and gave away things that no longer served me ie: I can't drink black coffee anymore (sniffle, sniffle) so I gave away a coffee pot, a keurig, and a french press, sniff sniff.
My main hobbies are running and yoga, and I have a LOT OF STUFF for these activities. I've been running distance since 2005 and while I got rid of a lot of too small running clothes a year ago, I still have a lot that I've either never worn (race shirts) or haven't worn in years (maybe I'll be an XS again and these shorts will fit! uh... no.)
I started listening to The Minimalists podcast and one of the challenges that they presented was to take a month, and each day of the month purge a number of items that matches the date. So on the first, one item, second, two items, and so on.
On New Years Eve I was home alone (because my husband ditched me for fishing), and I decided to start going through some of my things in preparation for this. I thought it'd be easier to tackle it a week at a time, because I know I'll be too lazy on a week night to purge X amount of things.
I have a GIANT stack of workout clothes that I don't wear anymore and haven't worn for years. I'm going to let one of my (tinier) friends go through it and take anything she wants. At first I thought, ooh I should organize a workout clothes swap! And then I realized, derp, that defeats the purpose. :P Anything she decides she doesn't want, I'll check in with my women's running group to see if anyone there needs anything. I know when I first started running, have a tech t-shirt changed the running game for me! From there everything will just get donated.
I also have a few boxes that have yet to be unpacked from our move (9 months ago) that I hope to tackle one of these weeks and contribute to the pile. While the concept sounds easy, I did the quick math on it, and I'll be purging 450 items from my life! That's crazy! But what better time to do it, then in a new year, fresh start!
Who's joining me?!? :D
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