I am not particularly religious even though I have been raised by highly religious parents. However, this year I am doing my own version of “7 weeks without xxx” which many Christians do between carnival and Easter Sunday. Basically you pick one thing you think you can’t live without and stop it during this time to use the time for other things. In religious context praying or meditating. In my world for more efficient and effective activities.

We started late on this, but we are in full speed and will not stop with Easter but add the missing weeks after Easter. So, the challenge is the following:

• Stop watching TV just for the sake of it. Allowed is selected series which have been decide upon the night before. But no zapping just to be on the sofa. Instead, my writing activity has increased (at least for Spain… and not only on the blog).
• No money spent apart from food and the house-related bills. Eating out only with friends for social reasons, but not for laziness of cooking 😉 No cinema, no “oh-I-like-this-I-might-need-it-purchases. And guess what! I took out my sewing machine to put together a nice wallet for my ebook reader. Instead of buying it. We have no special plans for the money saved (well, putting it into the mortgage), but we want to see the difference at the end of the month.
• Go through all our things (all cupboards, all book shelves) to ruthlessly give away/sell/donate/throw out things we have not used in more than a year. I started with the wardrobe, got in a frenzy, and now my book shelves are half empty. It feels breathable 😉 Many parts of the house are still missing, but we will do it bit by bit during the next weekends to actually remember what we have. After all: what does it help me to have cool kitchen gadgets if I never use them because they are so difficult to be cleaned. Or because they are at the far end of the highest cupboard so I forget about them?

So I am on a minimalist journey. Let’s see where it takes me. Or us. Husband is in it with his usual “I told you to thin out out your books waaaay back when we first moved in together” (truth be told: he carried them from one flat to the next).

Things I am still in doubt: what to do with my 25 (twenty-five! really!) diaries I wrote between age 16 and 18? Which are incredibly boring. Donate to an “analyzing diaries” study group? But they are half in German and half in Spanish. Nobody will understand the mix 😉

Oh, my inspiration was Everett’s book at farbeyondthestars.com. I will certainly not go as extreme as he has, but he has been a total inspiration to start the declutter journey. Which by the way marries very well with my perfectionism when it comes to efficiency. But that will be another post.

PS: Any hints on what to do with old diaries depicting your first “real boyfriend” and the daily diet in Quito/Ecuador are appreciated.

• identity
• motivation
• quality