I was talking with a friend about decluttering, and I said "I was happier when I had nothing, when I was first starting out." She said she felt the same way, so she visualized what she would have put into her just-starting-out apartment if she could have afforded to, and then she removed everything else from her apartment and got rid of it. She said it wasn't hard at all if you look at it like you're returning to a time when life was happier.
I remember my first apartment. I literally had two couches (one donated from my sister), a cable spool as a coffee table, a small side table with a magazine rack in the bottom from my mom, a table loaned by my friend's mom and 4 chairs I bought for $6 each, my bed, my son's crib, and my childhood dresser. I didn't even have anything hanging on the walls. I had a starter set of plastic dishes, a starter set of pots and mismatched utensils also from my mom. I loved that place and I had so much fun there. I also had a few houseplants.
So if I keep that in mind, and picture those rooms, and imagine what I would have added, it would have been very little, I think. Maybe a bookcase with a few books and some pictures on the wall and a rug or two. No microwaves or toaster ovens back then.
I feel like all I have now I have just because I was trying to fill up that big 3/2/1 house, because it looked so empty when I moved in, but my first apartment was pretty empty, as was my second and my third, and I was happy.
I'm going to try to do this and see what happens.
Submitted March 09, 2017 at 05:36PM by anybodyanywhere http://ift.tt/2lJ1sun
