Making space

This is third Update post in the series of the de-cluttering and minimalistic approach/journey we embarked almost three years ago.   ( 2017    2016 )

First, How we are doing with the goals I had set last year —

• Start packing cloth napkins in lunch bags and have a set for home meals too (kids ask).
  • Done. I send baby wash clothes now repurposed and steel spoons for the lunch boxes
• Make kids-ware atleast 90% plastic free. It is in a 60-40 stage now.
  • 100%. everything is steel, except for a few silicon straws
• Explore menstrual cup options and go sanitary napkin free
  • Still in progress. I haven’t completely shifted to the cup.
• Learn to mend small tears and simple stitching.
  • We converted many jeans/pants to shorts for the kids and skipped buying summer shorts!
• Continue to work towards a capsule wardrobe.
  • Love what we are doing with this. All of us have a fixed set of clothes to wear for workdays.
    • 6 polo shirts for me, 3 works pants, 3 capris
    • 6 anti-wrinkle shirts for N, 6 work pants
    • 8 polo shirts, 5 shorts, 5 pants for big A
    • 8 polo shirts, 5 shorts, 5 pants for small A
  • We have a separate shelf into which i arrange the clothes for (mon – fri). So all of us are in sync and dont spend more than 2 sec dressing up in the morning! Its been amazing!!!
  • Also have some restrictions in place for number of clothes outside of this set. I wish to reduce it down further in the coming years for all of us!
• Explore a no-birthday-party option replace with vacation or simple dinners.
  • Somewhat successful.
• More digital detoxing and avoiding deliberate digital footprints.
  • Rid of instagram, no FB app on phone ( login only once a day for school updates )
  • No phone after 9 pm every night
• Spend more time with people, make more phone calls.
  • Work in progress.

There is so much staying organised and mainly following PIP (everything has a place, everything in its place ) can do for life, thats overlooked. To me/us it was life changing —

• We went from categorizing and throwing to agonizing and organizing leading to home improvement projects ( new floors and stairs ) and then to selling and moving to a neighborhood and town we love ( since we knew exactly what we wanted )
• I went from agonizing about not finding time to workout, to making working out a habit that it has become something like bathing/brushing for me in the last 1.5 years.
• I have fewer vessels and fewer ingredients in my kitchen shelves, my grocery lists are almost always to point and i cook like a habit too which doesnt stress me out.
• I have read a lot of books, especially non-fiction, which has had a positive impact on  me.

One area i am definitely aiming for to be the biggest goal for the next coming years is to find my niche in professional life. I am constantly penduluming between “i have so much to learn” and “i am not doing enough”. And with rest of the clutter out of the way, I have made progress in making space. Lets see what the next year brings!