Trash or Treasure?

I have been attracted on-and-off to the idea of living a minimalist lifestyle. Pros: less clutter, easier to keep the home clean (no knick-knacks to dust around!), more generally pleasing and presentable. Cons: Well, I'm just a sentimental fool and still can't bear the thought of getting rid of some things.

I sometimes manage to get myself to a point where I'm just about ready to donate those old fancy dishes, but then I think "But Grandma gave those to you because she knows how much you value old heirlooms." Or I consider all the books collecting dust on the shelves, their spines uncracked for years, and then I think "Someday your children may want to read those." I open up the closet to reveal a shelf overflowing with spare blankets and think, "You don't really need all these blankets"; and then I think, "But what if the power went out?" And anyway, it's tricky with the blankets; because those that are the least practical (crocheted from acrylic, lots of holes) are the ones that are the most sentimental, so I can't get rid of those, but then it doesn't really make much sense to get rid of the really good, heavy-duty blankets, either. And then, there's all the baby blankets, and they're just too adorable to part with...plus, I'm not ready to be done having babies yet.

And what about all those holey jeans that need mending? Most of them are really beyond my skill to mend. But, maybe someday I'll make them into a jean quilt...meanwhile, though, my desk is half-covered in old jeans...not very functional. Not very minimalist.

As I was waiting in the chiropractor's lobby the other day I came across this article in Real Simple Magazine, with the "expert" consensus on how to pare down typical clutter areas (office supplies, kitchen utensil drawer, work bench, medicine cabinet) to just the essentials. Right away, though, looking at the kitchen utensils picture, I noticed a few things missing that I consider essential and that I would, in fact, sorely miss: potato masher, egg slicer, silicone whisk, Pampered Chef stoneware scraper...Do these "experts" even use their kitchens? And then, some of the things they recommended keeping, I rarely use. Really just goes to show, I guess, that the quest for minimalism is really a very personal thing, and that the old saying holds true: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Starting to go through things, though, I have managed already to fill two large bins full of stuff to go to the thrift store. My house doesn't seem that much less cluttered yet, but it's progress. And by clearing out the stuff that we don't need, there will-- theoretically-- be more room for stuff that actually holds some personal meaning and importance, even if it is not always that practical.