So, I’ve been decluttering for a long time now. I started this project ages ago, first to fit more comfortably in our previous flat and then to fit more comfortably in our current house which has less storage space. I’m at the point where I don’t need to own less, but still find myself encountering things I no longer need. It’s made me wonder, where is this leading, and what will happen when I get there?
I know that minimalism is different for everyone, and it isn’t my goal to live out of a backpack or have 100 items. Still, every journey leads somewhere. If the goal was to not have things spilling out of cupboards at me, I have arrived. So, too, if the goal was to have a perpetually clear dining room table or to own no clothes that I hate. I’m still decluttering, though.
If I thought it was to have a simpler life, I’m a long way off. Since I started decluttering, I look on everything with a harder gaze. My threshold for clutter is lower and I find myself unable to stop wondering what else can go. It has not made things simpler.
The goal can never be to have all rooms of my house completely clear of excess clutter because my husband is a true ‘just in case’ type. It also can’t be to have the pristine white apartment because I have dogs.
Is it to learn my signature style? To get down to the core of who I am? To only see things I love and don’t resent caring for when I move through my home? To not have unfinished projects lying around, taunting me? Or is it something much more pedestrian than that: to simply stop buying stuff I don’t need?