Doing More With Less

In the four years I’ve been in college, my least favorite annual tasks have been packing and moving. From dorm room, to sorority house to off campus apartment moving boxes and temporary furniture up and down too many flights of stairs.

I’m a huge proponent of decluttering, but I am also a hoarder at heart. I hate throwing things away, always thinking that I may need it later (for whatever reason). I reorganized my current room and closet a few months ago, and the amount of things I threw away was incredible.

Notebooks from my freshman year classes and love notes that should have been let go of so much sooner.

I’d been holding onto, and moving these things for years, and I started to run out of places to put everything.

Now that graduation is only 11 days away (umm what?!?), I’m facing the fact that I’ll be packing and moving again shortly. This move will (hopefully) but a little more permanent and much simpler. This time around, I really want to embrace letting go, making more of the things I already have instead of turning wants into needs as an excuse to add to the stock.

I want to toss or sell most of what I have now to make room for more empty space and fresh starts once I’m settled someplace new. Repurpose, reuse, but the hoarding has to come to an end.

So much of the things we carry, literally and figuratively, can be tossed out or given away. There is no need to constantly buy, consume and take. There has to be equal parts giving back and replenishing.

There has to be a balance.

I’ve been dreaming about my post-grad apartment for years now. How I want it to look down to colors and fabrics (crossing my fingers for an exposed brick wall).

It wasn’t until recently that it really hit me that the physical things inside that dream apartment didn’t matter nearly as much as I made them seem. They were nice additives, but didn’t fulfill the actual dream I had in mind when thinking of this new home.

What I’m really looking for is more personal space –to make memories, meals and grow in. A place to feel comfortable and relax in. A place that represents me.

With all of the perfectly staged Instagram photos of perfectly styled bedrooms and office spaces, it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to add more to achieve the same results. If we just had that desk, bedroom linen set, loft apartment then we’d feel complete.

But I think the opposite happens. We try so hard to get those things that we often end up sacrificing in other areas and missing out on the bigger picture.

Having those things is great, but being able to see and contribute to your bigger picture is so much more valuable. It’s the difference between creating a life authentic to you and existing in a life that’s popular to others.

There is great value in these values.