(Note, before I start, there is no audio this week. I intended to record once a fortnight, but it has been much easier to do this than I thought., so they have been appearing more. However, this week, the post is long enough without it. It needs no further introduction.

Theodore Roosevelt is quoted to have said.

“Comparison is the thief of Joy.”

This week I have my own adaptation of this beginning with a C word.

“Clutter is the thief of time.”

This is how I felt a couple of weeks ago after a frustrating one, which saw me trying to sell some things without much success. No-one wanted to buy the old camera in the second-hand electrical shop; the antique shop was shut, and I had spent several minutes trying to unlock an old phone (forgotten fingerprint recognition) to find out it was worthless. Also, it would cost me £15 to unlock to access any photos and then these would be automatically removed. Fortunately, I have Google photo back-up. I need them gone on this device for security if it was going to head over to the scrap metal pile in the recycle centre. I like to recycle and as you know from My Storyand am a keen environmentalist.

I have been progressing towards a Minimalist lifestyle for several years and when I moved to my present house in 2014, this was the catalyst for the removal of things which no longer served me or brought me joy, as Marie Condo beautifully illustrates in her work of how to tidy and de-clutter. There is a good article here from the Guardian if you want to read more about her work. It’s a great read.

I have found joy by giving things away many things on free sites and the people met with their stories. What my old shoe rack meant to someone else whose shoes were all over his bedroom floor, the spare slow cooker would help someone living on their own, working 12 hours shifts the chance to come back to a hot meal.

So, on my walk today, I thought more about this subject and wanted to write about it this week. These are the questions I have been asking myself?

How do I feel about letting things go that I don’t use, or don’t particularly like that have been bought by close people? The relationship between possessions and sentimental value and the guilt of letting them go, the psychological tug and pull. Should I let them go or stay? How would that person feel if they knew I had let them go?

 Do I let the 12 Doulton crystal Sherry glasses in their beaten-up original box, wrapped in newspaper go to the charity shop? I don’t want them, won’t use them but they are made of an expensive material. However, I probably would get very little for them financially. Given by my ‘adoptive’ Mother, I called my aunt from Oxford. She didn’t want them but because of sentimental reasons (wedding present I think) she couldn’t entirely part with them either, so gave them to me. And so the cycle goes on. They are currently under a spare bed because I have no where else to put them and have been there for several years.

What about the things in the loft I just cannot part with (because of my memories) but never see the light of day.

Then there are the three dresses of a designer label? Do I give Vinted a go? How much time will this take?

Do I just put everything on a FB selling page and see what happens? I have done this before with success, but these sites are full of potential scammers and time wasters now?

Do I try a car boot again, load up the car, get up at the crack of dawn, to bring it back home if it doesn’t sell?

The books I never read now but still love the subject with their pictures- Floristry.

Clutter takes up time, thinking time, practical time and this is a waste of time to me so my efforts to remove it to free up space in my life, in all ways is a priority.

Then once it is gone to not replace it. How many of us clear space only to fill it up again! How many times have I cleared the garage, the summer house where we used to live only for it to become junked up?  My husband can’t find the hoe in the garage for the mess and wanted to go and buy another one. I said no, I will find it. Clutter can cost us and I am sure we all have two bottle or packets of ‘this and that’ in our kitchen cupboards going out of date because we can’t find the first one.

I live in a home where space is a premium. We have one cupboard, one built in cupboard in one bedroom, a very small galley kitchen (plans to upgrade for increased space) and the hallways on two floors are narrow within a three-storey house. This has meant everything’s locations has had to be carefully thought about.

 Yet, this house also has a spacious quality to it because we have embraced a minimalist lifestyle and serves us in a way that we mostly enjoy. The garage is the last once and for all push and the underneath of one bed in the second bedroom which has memory boxes and my daughter’s christening and prom dress, and yes, those sherry glasses.

Then there are the mounds of paper. We have drowned in the stuff, having done many courses and qualifications in this household. I have just finished converting a study into a part nursery and toiled through 10 years of personal papers. it felt liberating to have the essential ones in one neat, boxed file and essential work resources in one filing cabinet. . A de-cluttered home is a more efficient one, that is certain and takes less time dusting, cleaning and crucially finding things.

There is work to do and decisions to make. On another walk I will come back and tell you how I got on with the answers to those questions when it is all complete.

If this post has sparked any thoughts or desires to aim for a more Minimalist lifestyle and you want to be inspired. then please go to My Library and look up Joshua Becker. He is the number one guru on this subject for me and is so convincing as to why you should give this a go.

Have a spacious week and I’ll leave you with my pictures depicting space and freedom to ponder over.