Simple Beginnings

Simply stated, this is the story of my awakening.  Literally. One day, about 8 months after the birth of my daughter,  I woke up and wanted to change my whole life. I looked around my house and realized I was surrounded by things I didn't need or even want in some cases. Things that were taking up my time and attention. Physical stuff that was (and is) distracting me and drawing me away from what is really important in my life.  I realized I have been chasing the "American Dream" without stopping to think what it really was, what it's implications would be for me and for others.
We are a very average American family. College sweethearts, married 5 years, one beautiful baby girl, Dad's a graphic designer, stay at home mom, all in one modestly sized two story house. Until recently we were also a very typical American family, mindlessly acquiring more stuff that we thought would make our lives better. A new TV, an electric tea kettle, those shirts at Target that were just too good a bargain to pass up. We never stopped to ask ourselves why. What are these objects adding to our lives? What are they taking away?
Then of course there is the constant barrage of toys and clothes that comes with having a new baby. People cannot wait to fill your house with adorable (but essentially useless for someone who wears more food than she eats) clothing  and brightly colored, popping, whirring, singing plastic toys from China. And the blankets, my stars, the blankets, some of them very lovely and hand made that you feel obligated to keep, even thoguh you can't quite remember who gave them to you. (Was it your mother-in-law's co-worker that you met that one time?)
In other words, our house had become a place more for our stuff than for us.

So we decided to change that. One day I started cleaning out closets and the next think you know my den looks like this.
All of this stuff is gone out of my house now (except the table and two of the chairs). Mostly given to the local homeless shelter. Some of the less helpful items gone to Goodwill. That's at least half of our clothes, a few of our dining room chairs, a bookcase, three or four boxes of baby stuff and lots of other things. You know what? I don't miss any of it. I can't even remember what most of it was.  A funny thing happened. After I got all of this useless stuff out of my house I felt lighter, freer somehow. I wanted to get rid of more.

So that's where I am now. At the beginning of the journey toward simplicity. Some of it has been easy, some of it will be more difficult. This is not just decluttering my house, it's decluttering my mind and focusing on what is truly important to me.