So far this month I’ve been able to finish Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert and start another book. I’ve decided that the next few books that I’m going to read are going to revolve around minimalism.

Now I’m not going to all of a sudden just have the extreme bare necessities in my future home–it will be cozy, but I have come to the realization that I can be a pack rat at times with certain things. I think trying to take suggestions from Zoe McKey’s book and some of the other books I’ve read I can design an scheme that works for me–it may not work for other people, but it can bring some sense of balance to my own life.

I’ve been thinking about reducing the amount of “stuff” I own for quite awhile. One reason is that when I move I don’t want to be adding a massive number of boxes to what I already have in storage (that I’d be sorting through once I got to my new place). Other reasons is that with things going more and more digital—do I really need all the CDs or DVDs (answer—I’m going to keep some—but not all).

I agree with the author that the western hemisphere has the mentality of more, more, and more, which does drive capitalism, but doesn’t really buy us happiness. I’ve also realized that having too many things, which I never get around to dusting, is causing both my allergies and my anxiety to flare at times.

Zoe introduces two theories of minimalism from Japan and two from Nordic countries. She also emphasizes that you can pick and choose the parts of the theory that resounds best with you to work with. Personally—I’ll probably be going more with Nordic ways of lagom and hygge than the KonMari or Wabi-sabi methods (but in a year to two, I may incorporate a little of those as well).

As Zoe said in her book “You don’t have to be so hard on yourself. Know your goals and act, declutter, and minimize accordingly”. For me that is to ensure that if I ever have to use a storage unit again for long term—it will only be half filled.

Moving is a pain in the rear, if I can condense down my belongings to half (or even a third) by the time I have to do a second move (after the next one)–that can save quite a bit of money in the long run.

So one goal is to try to go through the clothes I’ve acquired over the past four years and see how many can be donated or re-purposed to something else.