Being in Montana in a sparsely decorated house with a beautiful porch and a fantastic view has been unbelievably relaxing for me. I’m getting my work done faster and feel generally less stressed about everything.
I’ve also been doing a lot of reading – both in print form and online – and the one thing that’s been stuck in my head for the past few days is the idea of minimalism. I’ve always been into the idea of having a beautifully decorated apartment with walls of books and heapfuls of vintage furniture. But now that I somewhat have that, I don’t care about it all that much. Travel has become my modus operandi, and the more I get away the more I realize that the shit I own is holding my back.
So I’m going to start getting rid of things. And I’m going to start making some changes. I’m not going to purchase that $600 bed that I thought I wanted from Ikea. I rarely sleep in my bed anyway, and my floor mattress is quite comfortable. I’m going to sell my leather arm chairs, so that I will have room to sprawl out on my shag carpet rug – which makes me happy. And the biggest change – and the one that will be the hardest for me – is giving away a vast majority of my books to the kids in my neighborhood.
I’ve had a weird obsession with getting rid of books for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure what it’s based in, but I collect them like an obsessive old recluse, reluctant to give even the shittiest reads away for fear I’ll want to read them again. Even though I rarely do.
So once I’m back from my month in Europe, I’m going to sort of my crap and start cleaning out. Hopefully this will inspire me to live a less cluttered life and will clear my head as well.
