I have a lot of stuff.  When I say I have a lot of stuff I don’t mean that I have a bunch of extra things lying around that might fill a box or two.  I means I have a lot of stuff!!  I move a lot too, in case you haven’t noticed.  In 2006 my then-fiance went from having a consultant position with a company in California to being a full time employee.  So we had to sell our house that we’d bought the year before and pack up to move from Connecticut to California.  Mind you I was scared out of my mind because I’d never been to California…I’d never left New England save for the tri-state area and one trip to Orlando when I was 16.  And if you’ve ever owned a house you know that when you own your first house everyone gives you a lot of crap that they think you’ll need one day and before you know it you have a basement and garage overflowing with stuff.  Luckily we moved to a house in California that was three times the size of the house we had in Connecticut so that was OK.  But then the ridiculous moving began!

In 2007 we moved back to Connecticut from a 2300 sq.ft. house to an 1100 sq.ft. condo.  In 2009 we moved from our 1100 sq.ft. condo back to California to a 1500 sq.ft. townhouse.  In 2010 we moved to the other side of San Diego to an 800 sq.ft. apartment so we could live at the beach.  Then in 2011 we moved to Massachusetts to a 1700 sq.ft. house.  Now, in the upcoming spring of 2013, we’ll be going back to San Diego, CA for the last fucking time {I’m never moving across country again}.

This time when we move we don’t have know we’re going to move to since it’s far too early to start looking because we aren’t moving until April or May.  But since I’m not new here I anticipate moving into something between 800-1000 sq.ft. Hopefully not much smaller than 800 sq.ft. but I have a few very specific neighborhoods in San Diego I would like to live in {all surfer beach communities} and there is the painful possibility of moving into a smaller place, but I’m willing to make that concession if I can see the ocean from my workspace!

So I have a lot of stuff…OK, I have a lot of shit!

Last time we moved I think we counted somewhere around 50 boxes of just books.

About 5 or 6 boxes of toys and collectables.

A massive collection of clothes, including old clothes from when I used to go clubbing three nights a week that don’t fit me anymore.  I keep them because “someday I’m going to lose the 40lbs I gained since I used to wear these clothes and I’m going to go out clubbing again”…says the married girl that barely leaves the house except to go shopping or to the beach.

Shoes…a large plastic tote full of shoes when I only wear the same pair of sneakers or flip flops every day.

Three train cases of makeup when I use the same makeup from the small bag I carry in my purse every day.  But that I know why I still carry around.  I used to do special makeup for myself and for friends back in my clubbing days and I have a big collection of high end makeup {MAC, Dior, Vera Wang, Channel, etc} and the thought of parting with it is a little sickening given how much money is in those three cases.

Don’t even get me started with my magickal and spiritual gear!  I have totes upon totes of stuff.  Incense, oils, spell kits, candles, herbs, ritual gear…it’s obscene.

I’m not a hoarder!!!

Well, maybe I’m a wee bit of a hoarder when it comes to magickal stuff, but my house certainly doesn’t look like those nasty garbage heaps people call homes on shows like “Hoarders”!  I do throw things out and get rid of things that are broken, useless, etc.  But I have always loved my stuff and I grew up with the “if you can use it later, keep it” mentality from my Mom.

And now I have a house full of shit that I have been carrying around for years that I haven’t been able to part with.

But it’s time…time to let go!

I am taking a great creative business course right now and in the first week we did a meditation that had us looking into the future to see what our workspace and business will look like.  When I did this I found myself in a very minimalist space that was very unlike me.

White walls with only a few pieces of art on the walls, one of which was a large {maybe 5ft. tall} modern art Buddha painting, with two altars in two corners {one as a meditation/yoga altar and the other my crystal grid altar}.

The floors were light lament wood with a large, round forest green and white polka dot rug like something you would find at Ikea.

On the rug was a work table for a desk that only had my laptop, a small desk lamp, a vase with a single flower in it, and a two tier file folder holder with some papers and a few notebooks and journals in it.

Across from the table were sliding glass doors that opened out to a small balcony that overlooked the beach and the ocean.

This was a weird space to find myself in because I am always surrounded by things.  Books, toys, pictures on the walls around me…surrounded by distractions.

And as weird as this place was to be init felt right!! I felt like I could work there and really create there!

I came out of that meditation feeling a little sad to leave that space. I wanted to have that space to work and create and be productive!  So I decided it was time to start looking around my current space and make some decisions.

First of all I knew that with move coming up I was going to have to start getting rid of things.  I didn’t want to move with all these books anymore.  And since I got my iPad, even more than when I got my Kindle, I have been replacing things in ebook format or I’ve been just buying things in ebook format if they are available.  In fact I have gotten to the point where if something isn’t available as an ebook I put off getting it, hoping it will be available at some point.  Right now there’s a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks that I really want but it isn’t available as an ebook so I’ve been hesitant to get it because I don’t want to add to my books!

So I looked around and realized I have too much stuff and a lot of it could go.  And it was time to start doing it.

I had so many crystals at my desk on top of my printer that if I needed to use the scanner part of the printer or replace a print cartridge it would take me an extra 10 minutes so I could clear away and the replace all the crystals!!  WTF?!?!  WHY!?!  So I put them all away in a box and just left out my two babies, my palm-sized labradorite that looks like it has crows in it and my favorite spirit quartz cluster.

I got rid of the extra desktop clutter and took down all the pictures, magazine cut-outs, and random stuff that was hung up on the wall at my desk and scaled it down to just a few special things.  {Postcards from my current favorite things ever, Tiny Devotions, the beautiful business card for my friend Joanna’s business, and my Right Brain Entrepreneur Badge of Honor}.  All the bottles of oils are put away, the candles that just hang out on my desk are gone, and I finally went through the piles of mails and papers hanging out around here.  Now it’s all neat, tidy, and organized once again.

Books…especially my magickal and spiritual books.  That was next.  And the toys around my office that just collect dust and don’t have any real special meaning for me.  This is what happened there.

I have four six-shelf tall Ikea bookshelves in my office crammed with books.  I now only have three.  The fourth shelf is empty.  It might become our DVD and record storage shelf.  We’ll see what happens over the weekend.

Here’s the thing with the books…
I’ve never liked the idea of parting with my books.  But tell me…

What does someone who’s been Pagan for 26 years and who isn’t Wiccan need 20+ Wicca 101 books for?

Why does someone who’s been practicing magick for just as long and who writes their own spells and rituals need tons and tons of spell books?

Why do I have books by authors who, at this point in my personal journey, make my skin crawl?

Why does someone who’s a certified, professional tarot reader who’s even written a book on tarot really need 20 books on beginners tarot?

I don’t…plain and simple.

So a whole bookshelf worth of books got piled up, then boxed up, and are going to be going to get donated somewhere.  {Please don’t ask me to tell you what’s in there and if I’ll send them to you…I’m not going through them again.}

I hope to get rid of some more over the coming months.

The next thing I need to do is start going through my work/supply room which I’m planning to do on Sunday after I get back from three days in Provincetown for the Carnival parade and festival.  That will yield some interesting results, I’m sure.

But here’s the thing…
I don’t need so much stuff.  Stuff doesn’t make us happy.  Stuff doesn’t have power.  Stuff becomes clutter.  Stuff becomes a weight we have to carry and something we have to worry about.  “What would happen if I lost my stuff?”  “What would happen if my stuff got stolen?”  “What’s going to happen to this stuff if I die?”

 And I was sitting there thinking of all of that I realized that George Carlin snuck into my head, as he often does {he is one of my all time favorite funny, creative people who’s words truly have lived on past his death}.  Here’s George explaining stuff…

So I’m on the quest to become more of a minimalist.  It’s definitely a journey that’s being driven by Spirit and I plan to share more of it as I go.  I’ve only cracked the surface and I can feel that it’s also got me looking at other ways of needing to let go and pare down.

I want to move easier in the spring and live simpler from here on out.  I’m currently reading “Simplify” by Joshua Becker which has been helpful and kind of eye opening to my own issues with holding on to things.  I’d highly recommend it for anyone else that’s considering evaluating this part of their life!

Current Moon:  Peaceful