Walking Backwards

Joe and I have been engaged in the project of decluttering our house for what seems like months now. It began when I started reading all of these voluntary simplicity books. Wait, it began when I saw Affluenza on PBS. Okay, it doesn't really matter when I started in all this, what matters is that we are finally making headway on the whole getting-rid-of-crap-in-our-house project. Everything I had read on simplifying your life said the first step was to rid yourself of all superfluous goods. So that is what we've been doing. Who knew we had this much junk that we didn't mind giving away or throwing away or burning or playing baseball with? I have spent the last three days (about an hour each day, not the whole three days - I have a toddler after all) on my closet alone and it is probably going to take at least another week. I have a huge pile of stuff to drag to Goodwill or Freecycle this week. Another glaring realization in this whole process is how much stuff we have paid money for that we are never going to use or that broke or that we already had too many/much of. The best part, though, is that now I can find stuff! My school papers are not buried under last week's Sunday crossword. Nicholas' art supplies are in their own boxes and not shoved into my closet, hidden under my laundry bag that needs to go to the dry cleaners. My CD's are on a shelf where I can see them all! I'm so excited. I know it's crazy, but I am REALLY happy with this.

All that being said, I am still a little pissed off with myself for another reason. To start it off, Joe and I watched Fight Club last night. I picked it out due to my recent foray into soap making. Beside that, I identify with this movie (*cough* I know it was a book *cough*) on so many other points; I have chronic insomnia, I used to work only third-shift jobs, my ex and I used to box each other for fun. . . However, I must not have seen the movie in a long time because I realized that some of the negative things they were saying were about me. Damn it. They speak negatively of all of us IKEA and catalog addicts who spend their lives sequestered in their homes and their time taking care of their material possessions. More importantly the main character articulated the idea that people spend so much time acquiring and organizing and cleaning so that they can be comfortable that that area of their lives is under their control while the rest of the world spins out. Wow, that is so me. And I still love this movie.