Recommended reading, and a wee spot of difficulty

[flexagon]

I feel like I've now read every minimalist-living page on the internet, plus some. Here are my two latest favorites:

Your Clutter Hates You  -- You think you hate clutter? That’s nothing compared to the burning hatred your clutter has for you. Very funny, and not only for aspiring minimalists.

Can Your Stuff Pass the Red Velvet Rope Test? -- Thinking about your wardrobe... and your home and life... as an exclusive club that only the best of the best can get into. An interesting mental trick.

In related news, I've discovered the one thing that's slower and more difficult to pare down than papers -- old photographs. Remember when photographs always meant prints? I had a shoe-box full of those envelopes you used to get back from the photo place, and today I bought a 200-picture photo album and... oh man. I just threw out about a six-inch stack of 4x6 prints, almost entirely from between 1997 and 2003, and hope I'm getting down near 200 remaining but I haven't counted yet. This particular project may require another drink.

Comments

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

Speaking from personal experience, the photos require several drinks, and loong recuperative spaces between. It may be worse for those of us who recorded the progress of a child with astonishment. Looking back on the pictures, the astonishment is on the number of photos required, and the duplicates for grandparents and adoring aunts. Throwing them out is still oddly liberating. Like not dwelling in the past, or something.

[flexagon]

Oh gosh, I can only imagine the results of raising a child in the age of physical prints! As it is we had an awful lot from when the kittens were young. :)

Mercifully, victory was already mine when I wrote this post last night. I was down to 151 and just didn't know it yet. They're in the new album now, and I even managed to consolidate away a small customized album that had my old name (and a bad year) inscribed on it.

Thank goodness that everything will be digital now and forever! There's something else I can drink to.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying your discussions about minimalism. I don't really think that minimalism is for me, but I'm working on paring things down and figuring out upgrading things like my wardrobe. I have a tendency to get distracted by accessories.

[flexagon]

I'm glad to know you like reading it. I still have more to say, so the posts will continue somewhat...