Minimalize That!

listening to Time To Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli

Today was the day, the day I found what I was looking for, the day that things became clearer, the day life became less cluttered, less stuffy, the day I found the light. From now on this day, July 8th, 2008 will be forever known as the day that I, Christopher James Guenther the Third became a minimalist.

A house full of stuff, full of memories, broken and revered, full of clutter, too full to think, too full to find purpose. I had to do something, I started to simply clean up. Clean up. Dishes done. Floor vacuumed. Laundry clean. Bed made. But it wasn’t enough, there was still stuff everywhere, it was just tidied and neat. It’s so hard to get a job done with so much in the way. My shelf of oddities. Sure it’s entertaining, and provides good stories, Canadian Historical action figures, all the items I received in the mail from the cult of Peter Popoff, a jackalope. But it’s all in the way. In the way of progress. Of Progress. Books everywhere, pictures cluttering the walls, all distract. All unnecessary.

I hate being at home because I don’t do anything, I either sit on the couch and watch TV or sit at my computer and aimlessly wander the web. I look around and see everything that I should be doing, everything that needs to be done, and then I see everything that blocks the way, that’s in my way. Blocking The Way. I need to get around them, but it’s to hard, it’s so hard to see past the unnecessary. A pack of three boxes of unopened staples sits on my computer desk, 5000 per box. 15,000 staples sitting on my computer desk, getting in the way. I don’t even have a stapler. To my left old mail, behind me posters that have never found their place on the walls, in front of me a computer that doesn’t even work. Clutter. Mess. Unnecessary. Minimalism help me!

I began to throw away what I didn’t need, what I didn’t even want. I set aside a box of the redundant, the unimportant, the inessentials to give away. I’m sure someone wandering through V V Boutique would love an action figure of Sir John A. McDonald for a buck. One month ago I would have bought it. I’m certain my mother who works in an office where staplers are abundant could use these 15,000 staples way more than I could. Goodbye staples, goodbye Sir John.

The feeling is refreshing, rewarding, rejuvenating! The three ‘R’s of minimalism. My purpose is clear, my conscience is clean, life once again uncluttered by the mess of the past. A dear good friend of mine showed me the light, when she said, “It’s a feeling of being able to just leave and be free. To have nothing holding you back.” To be a minimalist is to be free.

I’ve only just begun.