So the first week of August is considered National Simply Your Life Week (so technically Aug 1 through Aug 7). I’ve moved the dates a little and am considering the first full week (which would Aug 5 through Aug 11) as National Simplify Your Life Week. Now this can mean different things to different people—someone may want to simplify their emails (unsubscribing from emails that they no longer read but just automatically delete), or cleaning out their closet.

For me, it’s probably both those things and much more. While I don’t consider myself a hoarder—I will get rid of things; I will admit that at times it takes stuff piling up for me to do it. I noticed that I haven’t really found the happy medium between being a total slob and then going OCD in cleaning.

I have gotten rid of basically all my old magazines that I had (even ones that I’d saved with the thought that maybe I’ll get around to reading it); and I try to get rid of old papers at least every two weeks. But I do let things start piling up and then it looks like my room has been hit by a low level tornado.

I’ve been slowly trying to simplify things for one simple reason—when I move I don’t want a large headache again. When I moved to Boston it was pure hell, only because I went with a really, really bad company (that luckily has gone out of business since then). Moving back wasn’t that big of a problem (I left quite a bit behind for the person who was finishing out my lease), but things have been sitting in a storage unit since I’ve been home.

So while I have the storage unit in some semblance of order–there are boxes that need to be repacked and items that possibly could be gotten rid of.

Even though I’m trying to go slightly minimalist, I do realize that there are a few things that I will need to get when I do move—namely a dresser (since I left mine behind), a table (for eating, work, and doing crafts), and possibly a small couch (and maybe one that also doubles as a pull out bed for guests). I’ve realized that I don’t need a large space to live in—the larger the space, the more cleaning you have to do. All I really need to do is become better organized, and actually keep things that mean something to me, instead of keeping everything.

So what am I going to be doing during this week to simplify my life?

Well, I’m going to slowly get rid of all the boxes that aren’t of size for repacking things (the little boxes mainly). I know that our recycling container is almost filled, so I will see what I can cram in there, and then after it’s empty—I’ll cram some more.

I’ll finally get around to completing at least one (or maybe two) decluttr orders (selling back DVDs), and that will also clear up some room on the floor.

Box up the extra things for the aquarium and place it out in the garage.

Straighten up my closet area (re-hang clothes, and put clothes in the small dresser). Also go through the clothes and see which ones may be too holey to wear and dispose of somehow.

I’m also going to work at getting my primary personal email account down to less than say 3,000 emails. Plus I’m going to check all email accounts and try to have them all under say 4,000 emails. Then the real work will come and actually trying to keep the accounts all under a certain limit.