I have taken it upon myself to engage in a spate of mid-year resolutions. Amongst these is a will towards simplification. I have unpacked a lot of old CD’s, objects, boxes, and sorted what I want from what is trash. As I progress in this task it struck me that engaging in simplification is a lot like honoring the dead and releasing it from within. I have looked into many DVD’s and CD’s full of data that was pertinent to a previous me, but no longer really relevant. I’m sorting the wheat from the chaff and I’m shredding a lot of these discs in my CD/DVD shredder. There is a unique liberating feeling that comes with doing all of this winnowing.

I have also been temporarily overwhelmed with nostalgia as I unpack things I haven’t thought about for years as I dig into the piles I have hidden throughout my home. I am a self-confessed packrat and that time is over. I give myself a little moment to consider what I’m getting rid of and then I purge it from my life. So far I’ve been able to sell a few things which will definitely help the budgetary process down the road.

Out with the old feels a lot like therapy. I can symbolically achieve little bright shots of closure each time I make a decision to keep something or purge it. By the end I should have an orderly, simplified, and much leaner household.