I’m sitting here, stuck, again, overwhelmed by this next round of purging.

I haven’t bought anything new in a while, and while I also haven’t brought in much stuff over the past couple of months, I still feel like there’s still so much left to get rid of.

But so far, I’ve:

• Recycled several huge bags of paper
• Given away stuff (Thank you GrowNYC for Stop n’ Swap! I can’t wait for the next one)
• Sold over fifty books
• Cleaned out my refrigerators (yes, plural)

I think the biggest challenge that I’m having with this is that there’s really no place for what I am keeping to go. The majority of what I threw/gave away/sold was in boxes and crates to begin with, so I’m still left with boxes and crates, albeit, a considerably smaller amount.

Because of my limited space, I’m still living a kind of “in storage” life, and since I don’t want to live here for much longer, I don’t know that it’s necessary to build out the space. So, I’m stuck.

In the meantime, I’ve been revisiting why I’m doing this in the first place.

For me, this minimalism adventure has not been about what most people think minimalism is: Living with very little material possessions, living frugally, or cutting oneself off from the world. Sure, there are hundreds of people who have made those choices, but the beauty of minimalism is that you can decide for yourself what minimalism looks like for you.

For me, minimalism has been about reducing or eliminating the things I don’t want to do (mainly: chores), controlling/reducing/eliminating my need for Stuff (getting rid of surface space so that I don’t have anything to pile papers and magazine on), and being able to move into a new place uncluttered and lighter. The first time I moved to live on my own, it was in haste, and I brought a lot of stuff with me that could have been thrown out. And since I was never motivated to go through it, it all came back with me, or went into storage.

I don’t want that to happen during my next move, so I need to get going and work out a solution. Quick.

Minimalism is also about releasing myself from the idea that I need STUFF in order to be happy, successful, or socially desirable.

I’ve decided that my time, and the freedom to do with it as I please, was more important than acquiring stuff, which also means having to work in a very specific way – drone work – that I hope I never have to go back to, for any reason.

The Everyday Minimalist has pretty much summed up the WHY of minimalism.  Here’s an excerpt:

Less stuff owned means less to carry around, move or have to travel with

Less responsibility for your stuff also means less maintenance and more time

The more time you have, the more relaxed you will feel

The more relaxed you are, the less you will care about stuff

Read the full manifesto here.

Have you been thinking of have you started decluttering your space?

What are your goals and how are you doing in the process?