Just a couple of weeks ago, I shared some of the ways my wife and I were working to tidy up our apartment, get rid of stuff, and perhaps even try on minimalism for style. Well, following a short break in progress due to our Vegas trip, we were back at it this week, taking on a few new projects as we pare down our possessions.
As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my first tasks was to take on my closet and clear out clothes I no longer needed. Well, this week it was time to move on to the drawers — namely my unwieldy collection of t-shirts. Luckily, within a few minutes, I was able to cut down the number of shirts on hand by more than half. Better yet, they now all fit on one layer in the drawer instead of doubling up as they did previously (they’re folded Marie Kondo style so stacking was possible).
Admittedly, there are still far too many shirts (as you can see in the featured image for this article). On top of that, the ones that I did “get rid of” aren’t exactly gone forever as we saved panels from most of them to create a quilt with down the line. Still, the scraps take up much less room than the full things and, on a day to day basis, I’ll only see the remaining. Plus, from here, I can keep closer track of what shirts and wear and which I don’t so that further rounds of discarding can occur.
Elsewhere, we’ve also been hunting down old magazines we’ve acquired and tossing past issues. Sometimes it’s fun to take a quick glance through five-year-old Entertainment Weekly issues to see the hype for films that flopped, spot pieces of news for projects that never actually came to fruition, and see celebrity couples that time has already forgotten. But, after these brief looks back, into the recycling they go.
Lastly, a much smaller project we also completed was going through our various video games. As it turns out, when I bought my used XBOX 360 back in 2008 (remember the Bush stimulus checks?), it came with some games I’ve never played. It also turns out that I’m absolutely no good at them! Thus, we were able to clear a little more space under our television this week.
All things considered, I feel like we’re making good progress even if we’re taking things relatively slow. At the same time, the true fruits of labor likely won’t be felt until more projects are complete and we can put everything in its new home (and out of the damn way). With not a whole lot to look forward to on our calendars, hopefully we can continue to knock out more projects and, eventually, have the minimalist-ish home we’ve been working towards.