home is where the couch is

We've been living with our beautiful back room for a few months now. I think after a year and a half of renovating, we're now in do nothing mode. Recuperating.

One thing that has come out of this reno is a change of mindset for me. With our dining room looking like a hoarders house during our renovation, I've found that the weight of stuff has literally been weighing down my psyche. Things and crowded spaces have been making my mind feel heavy. I've been feeling like I need space to think.

So, I actually haven't just been doing nothing. I've been purging. Our dining room - pre-reno - had our dining room table and chairs, a china cabinet, piano and library card catalogue in it. Oh, and a treadmill. That's a lot of stuff for one room. So crowded and full of places to hide junk.

This was taken in 2007 but hadn't really changed since then. Take away the desk and buffet and add a treadmill and china cabinet.

I went through my china cabinet and was fairly deliberate and mindful about what I was going to keep and what I was going to get rid of.



Table cloths, craft supplies I never used, knick knacks, candles. All of these things went. Honestly, I never used these things and they were just something I had to clean or organize. Out they all went. Along with the china cabinet.

I moved some shelves I had in the living room and put them in the kitchen. The things I kept from the china cabinet went on the shelves.



The piano that loomed large and dark, although it was fairly cool looking - gone. The piano bench - gone. The yellow paint that had been on the walls for the last 11 years. Gone and repainted white. Currently, I just feel I need to paint everything white so that I can breathe. I love colour and am sure I will change it up when I find I get to the place where I can focus and am ready to add colour substance to the house. But for now, white is calling.

I've been reading and researching minimalism for the last few months. I've been reading blogs and books, reading real life accounts of peoples journeys of getting rid of things, of peoples attachment to stuff and how it affects you. It's been pretty eye opening and interesting on how our society pushes you to buy and that you need, when there is a whole different way of living. Like, have only the things you love and use.

Now I'm not saying I'm planning on getting rid of everything in my house and only want to own 100 things. That kind of minimalism is a little extreme for me. But I do want to begin to go through my house with a harsh eye and get rid of the junk that weighs me down.

After going through my china cabinet and tossing or donating over half the stuff in there, I thought, am I going to miss any of this? I don't. I had a bit of a hard time getting rid of the candles - I don't know why, they're cheap enough to re-buy. But my boy helped me out by pyroing the whole lot of them and making such a mess they needed to be tossed. The freedom I felt was great.