Letting Go of THINGS

Three years ago my family downsized by 90% to move into a 300 sq' Fifth Wheel and travel North America, indefinitely. 

The process of downsizing was a massive undertaking for a girl who grew up holding onto to so many things.  

It was an amazing and transformational process as we managed to make a decision about Every. Single. Item. we owned. 

I was just going through my electronic notebooks looking for something, and what came up were journal entries from July 2016, 3 years ago this month, I wasn't looking for these but they are so appropriate to find right now. 

I was right in the middle of purging our life of 90% of our possessions. 

Letting go of all of our stuff might be one of the most intense things I've ever done. 

I wanted to share a few excerpts from that time: 

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7/9/16

This is the big purge. This is stripping away to the essential. I do not want to own anything that I am not currently using. I don't want anymore of the old stuff. I want just what I use right now.

7/16/16

I did a ton of small things today, but kept going.

I choose this adventure over these things.

I choose simplicity over these things.

I choose ease over these things.

I choose time over these things.

I got rid of books I have been very happy to have in my "collection."  

Except I hate collections.  

I don't want any. 

7/22/16

One of the interesting things about packing some of these things up is the amount of overwhlem I feel by the volume of things. As I put together two gallon bags of rubber stamps I'm thinking "Of course I never used these. There are too many choices."

Some of the books are hard to get rid of, like L'Arte de la Renaissance. It feels like leaving a part of me behind. Leaving the college student who would read about art history in French. But I am leaving her behind. I am not her anymore and it saddens me a bit but there are just so many other things I'm interested in and I have to make way for those things. 

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It's interesting to go back and read these words now that I'm so far on the other side.  

Now that I know (kind of) how it worked out.  

Now that I've been living without that stuff for three years. 

What I can say for sure now, is that I would never want to own that much stuff again in my life. 

And, if you desire a life with less things, do it!  

It will make a massive impact on your life.