Funny Minimalism Story

 On Sunday morning after my major clearing out of the scrap book/craft things I was feel good but, didn't know if Alan noticed how much was gone.
 I was down stairs and E'lyse asked me where Amarillo was? I said I think it is in Texas but Faith said it was in Tennessee. So of course I did what any red blooded American would do I came up stairs and Goggled it. I asked Alan as I was typing it where Amarillo was he also said Texas. We then started singing George Straits song "Amarillo By Morning", as we are singing it together we get to the part where he says "everything that I got is just what I got on", Alan says to me "Yea that is because you either got rid of or threw away the rest of it!"
YES he did notice. It was funny and we had a good laugh out of it.
  Now to think up a motto for my decluttering?????? Hugs, Bobbi  Jo

Big Step Now Little Steps Declutter

I have been doing a little hear and there. I have gotten rid of 6 large fruit boxes of books. I love books and thought this too would be a hard thing for me but NO it felt really good to clear out those shelves.

This is a TV stand in our bedroom the shelf is just below where the TV sits. It has doors on it so you can close it but just knowing what is in there was bothering me. So I got a CD/DVD case and got rid of all the yucky plastic cases 

BEFORE 

 AFTER

This is the bottom of the TV stand. I didn't take a picture before I cleared it but it was awful! It had all my massage books from school, reading books and some other things on it. It too will get cleared off again in the near future but now it  looks so much neater.

 Yesterday afternoon I decided to hit a fast easy spot to clear out 

My make up bag. No joke this is what I saw when I opened it up this was not staged. 

 I ruthlessly went through it. Decided what I wear, use and can't live without and this is what I ended up with.

 Make up I got rid of.

I then decided I needed to clear out under my side of the counter. 1St rule in decluttering is pull it all out. So that I did.

 This was some of the other items that found their way under there. 

 Wow invisaline from how many years ago. Did I think I was going to wear them again. 

 This is what I put back under. I want to get a cute storage container of some sort to 

store the items a little neater but for now this looks good to me. 

 Still feeling good about all that I have gotten rid of .

There is much more in the works so stay tuned. 

Hugs, Bobbi Jo

The Hard Stuff ~ Scrap booking and Crafts

My last post was the start of my minimalism journey. 

This next one is what I thought would be the hardest for me to EVER get rid of and that would be my scrap booking and craft things. This is the shelf that most of my things were parked collecting dust. As you can see I had already cleared out some of the thing that are on the table before I remembered that I needed to take a picture of the progress.  This was a LONG very long process. I kept thinking what if this and what if that then I thought you haven't been actively doing anything with these things since you went back to school in 2010 Let it go now!   

I didn't just want to take it to donation so I asked around and found out that my soon to be daughter in love would love to scrap book. YEA! So Dallas asked her and she said she would love to have the items I wanted to get rid of. I was so excited to give it to someone that could use it and would enjoy it.

 The little start before the picture

 This is how the shelf is for now. I am still tweaking things a bit but it looks much better and less is more!!

 This is all of the things in the back and second seat of Dallas' jeep. I should have got a side view but alas I didn't . The boxes were full of things clear to the top! 

I still have boxes in the garage that I need to clear out but in time this will happen. It is a slow process due to time. 

 I would love to hear from you about how you feel about your stuff or lack of stuff. Hugs, Bobbi Jo 

Minimalism

 I started this post a while ago. I would write it out then delete it. I just wasn't sure how much I wanted to share. Even though I have always tried to keep it real it is hard to show that you have let THINGS become what you think you are. Does that make since? Growing up with parents who kept a lot of STUFF (this is being nice) I followed in their footsteps and did the same thing. I don't want to live like that anymore. I want to feel free.
 I had been thinking about letting go of things. Things that I don't use often or at all, things that are just taking up space and making me feel almost claustrophobic. Things that cause more work to take care or clean up or take space that can be used for another use or nothing at all. I had thought about this a lot then one day Coco and I were talking and I don't remember how it came up but she had been reading on blogs about minimalism and wanting to do it too. So then after talking with her I got the courage up and started small but what a big difference it made. Not only in my closet but in my bodies space. A lift, a release of things that I didn't love or need to make me feel I am who I am.
 I started small with my shoes. I have a major shoe fetish I have always loved shoes and enjoy looking at them at the stores. So this is where I decided to start. I was watching a You Tube video and I am sorry I can't remember the name but they showed how they stored the shoes and I thought "Hey I could do that!". So I sorted through my shoes now a lot of my shoes were crowded like the first hanging space. I was ruthless with my shoes and ended up with 12 pairs including my 2 pairs of slippers.
So I went from this:                                         BEFORE

                                          To this:                  AFTER                    

 Alan came home from work and I showed him what I had done. He like the idea and said "You know I could do something like that with mine!"  No more needed to be said to me. I went down the next day and got boxes for his shoes.
 This is his shoes before the cleanup:
                                                                          BEFORE

And then                                                              AFTER

 Feeling what this had done for me I knew I wasn't going to stop at this. Hugs, Bobbi Jo