Going Monk

I have a friend staying with me. She will help me to stage my house for selling. It is amazing to me how our brains work. I am supposed to go extremely minimalist and have a bed, one dresser (maybe) and one picture on a wall. This is how they do it in the real estate world of staging. What is fascinating to me is people will fill the space with their own things in their heads, not my things. I know this technique works, but wouldn’t people want to see just how much junk you will really put into a room? No one moves in and has just a bed and dresser with one picture, because I am well aware of all the other junk you will put in there. Well let’s fool them for a minute, later they will see just how much stuff they can cram into this house.

We fill our lives with so many things, mementos, decorative artwork, knick knacks, but do we really need it to live? We give gifts to people we think they will love and maybe they do, but it causes them work to have to dust around a knick knack or clean a glass from a picture frame. Life might be easier if we just bought people a need, like food or some other form of disposable gift. 

We are conditioned to want more things and gifts and I am realizing how stressful this is on us all. We have to buy the perfect gift for holidays, birthdays and whatever. Our homes need to become showcases of our financial success with all the trappings of accomplishment displayed inside and out. I think after all this sorting through God is showing me I need to go monk for awhile. This would mean a small place to sleep, less food and clutter and a smaller lifestyle. I say this as I plan to move more boxes into my shed to hide more of my necessary stuff from people who will want to see their things in my house (in their heads of course).

There is a saying less is more, maybe this is what I am doing and realizing monk is good for me right now. I already have the less money part down pat since I know how to stretch a dollar until it bleeds. Parting with some other amenities like the dust mites living off my knick knacks may cause me some allergic distress. I never was rich or busy enough to hire a maid, so I entertained dust bunnies, dust mites and a few other creatures in the hard to reach areas of my house. I am finding them now and think I might be able to live without them too. Who knows those three morning sneezes may be a thing of the past, bonus!  I will probably go through the boxes again when I leave and remove more clutter from my monkish life. I am not as attached to certain things as I once was.

I do know there are people concerned about me discarding Steve’s things too soon. Trust me, I have boxes of Steve, I have kept many things that remind me of him or gifts he bought me through the years. I still have my wedding ring too which I keep on my finger to keep him close. He will not be thrown out with the bath water. We have a lifetime of memories I hold dear to me. I am recognizing so many things I can live without right now, unfortunately Steve is one of those things. I never thought I could live without him our vows we took meant he was part of me and I him. I just didn’t realize I could live without a big toe until it was removed. So many people in this world feel the same way and I realize now that I am just a small part of this big picture.  I really am small and my self importance is falling away.

I have an important part to play in the heavenly scheme of things, but in the eyes of this world, I am just a little toe on the body and not really necessary. I am okay with that, because I have a secret the world doesn’t understand, it is my peace of mind about my life. If I didn’t get this loan to restructure our house payments, it would be alright by me. I would find another way to go and be good with that. I am becoming like a tumbleweed, wherever I go is a good place. If I have a nice house fine, but if I have a small comfortable place where I don’t have to pay someone to clean or I don’t have to clean as often, that is even better. I needed this place to raise my family and to house them when they come home. I realize I don’t need big anymore.

So goodbye encyclopedia’s on that bookshelf we had for years doing nothing but taking up space and all the rest of the books which sat there too. I don’t need you or the shelves you sat on anymore. You will notice I haven’t said anything about my craft room essentials. I have pared down those as far as I can, but like Steve’s tools, you just never know when I might need something and to do a job right, you need the right tools. I realize I need a creative outlet which is why I am blogging, but there are times I may feel like painting or making some gift to give to someone. I never know when that urge will hit so it is best to be prepared.

So today I go monk, we will stuff more boxes into the shed only to go through them again later and shed some more stuff probably. I feel so peaceful about releasing most of this stuff. The rooms are looking better and less like the home we occupied for so many years. This is the plan and I will stick to it at least until I find another place to put my stuff.