Yesterday I had one of those days that brought it all back to me. Why am I downsizing!? Why am I working to simplify my life with less stuff.

I had an add on Craigslist to sell some Sports Illustrated for kids magazines I culled many months ago. I had been contemplating putting them on Ebay. Yesterday someone answered the add and we arranged a meeting time for him to come get them. I have to admit I could have gotten my ducks in a row earlier than the meeting time, but I didn’t. One half hour before the meeting time of 12:00pm I start looking for these magazines I have on the add.

You guessed it… I can’t find them right away.

I start to get nervous, its to late to text him or call him. He is on his way. Crap!? I start looking around with a greater sense of anxiety. How embarrassing this will be when he knocks on my door, and I have to say “sorry I cant find them”. So in my mind I know these magazines are together, and I know I have extra ones I culled that are not together with the larger quantity. So I am looking for two piles of stuff in my stuff. And the minutes are passing load in my head. It’s as if everything as stopped and all focus is looking for these dang magazines. I feel bad I can’t find them right away, like within one minute. I have still small amount of stuff around my bed , so I look and I don’t see them. Dang!? I have a storage spot in the basement under the stairs, are they there… nope. Dang!? Its getting close to 11:43am and this dude is getting stressed out looking for them. Next I look in the garage. The great thing with my results to this point as I know 100% they are not up stairs. So I go looking in the garage. within a couple minutes I find the small stack of 6 magazines in a container. Within another minute I find the remaining stack of 37 magazines. Dang that was close, to close. I am relieved I just found them. I review the add to ensure I have exact quantity in the add plus the extra are not counted in the add quantity. He knocks at my door on time. I let him know I have extra magazines and I sell them for a few more bucks more than the listed add amount. So after all this it all worked out. But I learned something, actually two things.

Here are two things that are reduced by my efforts in getting rid of unneeded items, less stuff.

#1. The need to move “the pile” to a “new pile” gets better.

#2. The anxiety, nervousness, and stress looking for stuff gets better.

Yesterdays example reminds me of what I did on a more regular basis. It was part of my life. It was not relaxing, fun or joyful. It was no where close to anything that could be called simple living practice. At first with that feeling of not finding the stuff was a feeling of bitterness, it sure was not good to experience it. and on the other hand I did find the stuff before the meeting time, which did show me that I could have not found those magazines with my past tense amount of stuff, and that is a sweet feeling.

So my take away from yesterday’s occurrence was bittersweet in knowing that less stuff does make life better. My journey to realize getting rid of one item at a time, gets me closer to a more simpler way.

Lets let go (of stuff) and grow!!

~Troy