Feeling Overwhelmed

Saturday morning and I was sat at Little Bird's netbook, reading some past posts on a new to me minimalist blog I've discovered recently (Miss Minimalist to anyone interested), when all of a sudden the netbook seemed to get very hot.  As OH's laptop, currently returned to the manufacturer, nearly caught fire the other week after overheating, my first thought was 'here we go again'.  Anyway, I began to think that maybe it was trying to tell me something and so tore myself away from the internet and decided that perhaps I needed to do something else instead for a change.

I started off by doing a few household tasks, washing up, sweeping the front path which was covered in leaves and getting a bit slippery and clearing some cobwebs inside and out that have been annoying me every time I've caught sight of them.  Having caught up on such tasks, I still felt like I wanted to do something productive, so I decided to start another round of decluttering.

For a while now, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed, mainly by my possessions and the amount of 'stuff' we have in our home, most of it acquired by yours truly.  As a consequence, I've regularly been taking steps to reduce the clutter and avoid buying more, as I've documented here on my blog from time to time, but still the feeling persists.  To help to keep me inspired in this process, has been the minimalist blog reading.   I don't have any wish to become a minimalist.  I'm not a person who likes to have a label attached to themselves and in any case my beliefs are subject to change from time to time, being the capricious person that I am, but I do like to take my inspiration where I can get it and at the moment it seems to be coming from this direction.

Anyway, Little Bird's room was a complete mess and she'd promised me that she would tidy it before the end of the half term holiday.  To help keep her to her promise, I offered to help her and together we got started in clearing up the mess.  I always find this works much better, as if I leave it to her to do alone, she finds it impossible to even get started.  In addition, I do like to do a decluttering session in her room before the festive season is upon us, as she will undoubtedly receive lots of new 'stuff' over Christmas, although I am trying to be a lot more discerning myself in this regard this year.

This time around, I allowed her to get rid of many things that in previous rounds of decluttering I have not been happy for her to part with.  I figured that if I don't want her to acquire the difficulties I find myself having letting go of things, I must let her act according to her instincts as much as possible.  A few things were hardly used or worn, but had they stayed they would remain so, so what was the point in keeping them.  Surely it is better to let them go and let someone else use and benefit from them.  It does make me think twice about buying anything for her too in future, without her approval, as most of these items had been bought in such a way.

By the time we had finished a couple of hours later, her room was tidy once again, the waste bin was full, I had a big bin bag of items to go to the CS, a small pile of items to give to other family members and another pile of dish cloths cut from undonatable clothing, to be stored under the sink and used as required.

Purge over, and I'm feeling a bit better.  Little Bird now has more of a capsule wardrobe than I do.  I think I should start taking some of my inspiration from her, especially in the wardrobe decluttering department.  She does need a few new things now, but I think I will sit down with her and figure out exactly what she does need and want her wardrobe to contain, before rushing out to buy anything.  Maybe that way we will both end up with a wardrobe that we really like wearing and not one full of items that keep getting overlooked or underused.