The E Word: Excess Part 2

Happy Tuesday, friends! I am having a very motivated day, and let me tell you why. That whole Excess word, which I talked about in my first post HERE, has been keeping me moving and motivated.

What's the problem with excess you ask? Nothing, actually, but there are a few reasons why I am viciously trying to rid myself of it:

1) Excess=too much stuff=more cleaning
Clutter begets clutter. By paring down my possessions to that which we actually use, I am making my home cleaner and my job as keeper of my home easier.

2) Excess makes the simple life impossible
In our 21st century world it is so difficult to keep life simple. We are constantly running 100 miles per minute and our brains are constantly going. I believe that a decluttered life means a decluttered brain, better able to focus on things that really matter.

3) Appreciation
I try very hard not to complain about first world issues. Like "there's so much food in the fridge, I don't know how we are going to eat it all". While visiting my husband's grandparents in Poland, I noticed they had almost no counter space. Their kitchen was just a stove and oven, a small fridge, and a table. And somehow, even with this lack of "stuff", his grandma managed to cook the most amazing food. She didn't have dozens of cooking utensils or fancy cookware. It made me realize that I am so used to have excessive amounts of things in my life that I don't appreciate what I have. By paring down my belonging to those things I really use, I feel a little closer to the women all around the world who raise families just fine with no counter space.

So all that being said, I wanted to share my progress with phase 2 of my Excess purge. In my last post you saw me get rid of many of the items in my closet, and honestly, I don't miss anything that is gone so far. I could probably even get rid of more.

Since then, I went through my dresser and got rid of all the excess t-shirts, nightgowns, etc that I didn't really need. I also trimmed down my sock collection, which had grown to epic proportions.

Then my poor husband got trapped into my excess whirlwind and we went through his clothes.

He said over and over again that he didn't think he owned anything he needed to get rid of. I told him we should just go through it and make sure. It didn't look like he had a lot of clothes to begin with, but in the end we managed to get rid of quite a bit (see below)

So after that I began going through the house room by room. The kitchen was difficult, because I had deluded myself into thinking I didn't have too much in there. Then I opened the cabinets containing our drinking glasses and this is what I saw

Ok maybe I had a little too much stuff. I am a tea-aholic so the top shelf is full of my giant tea collection. It may look like the definition of excess, but I guarantee I will have gone through all of that tea in the next 60 days. I'm allowed to keep things I still use, after all. So I got rid of some of our mugs. After all, I doubt we will have 18 people in our tiny apartment simultaneously drinking coffee or tea any time soon.

Here is the end result (which probably doesn't look my different, but hey, it's a work in progress)

 In the end I had a box full of Excess stuff from the kitchen

My poor guest room is filling up with a great stock-pile of "Excess" things which will soon be relocated to my sister's house for a garage sale (If that hideous pink duvet in front doesn't say Excess, I don't know what does)