Deneiling

I have suffered from being a hoarder for a long time now. After many years of attempting to break the habit, throwing out stuff and giving things away, I usually went out and bought more things to replace everything that I had re-homed.  Finally this year I think I may have overcome this affliction. I have a new term for this, "deneiling".  I think it is a great word and completely encapsulates what I am doing.  I wish I knew why it has taken this long to be able to de-clutter.

I have spent many dollars on buying organizational books, listened to hours of lectures from friends and up until now, I just wasn't able to bite the bullet and really get rid of all my extremely useful, but largely unused belongings.  Now, however, I have emptied bags of clothes and shoes out of my walk-in-wardrobe, that was no longer a walk-in-wardrobe as there were so many things in there, I had to climb over the piles to find anything.  It has been about 4 weeks now, and admittedly there is a pile of stuff to go to be re-homed, which I still haven't got around to taking away, but I am proud to announce that I only took back 6 things from that pile, and I haven't been out shopping to replace anything.  This is a major breakthrough for me.

To continue on this theme of de-cluttering, I have just had the living areas of my house re-painted and during this process I have decided that I have too much furniture, homewares and decorator items.  I do not like the minimalist look but I really can't stand all that excess clutter anymore.  I am sick of buying extra furniture to accommodate all my things, so now I am down sizing, yippee.  I feel fantastic for it.  I used to feel horrible after I had de-cluttered, now I feel liberated!  I couldn't understand why my friends could happily throw out things that they hadn't used for a year.  I always thought, what if I need it next year.  I probably will want it next year, but I don't care any more. There will be a lot of people out there benefitting from my de-cluttering.  I have already had friends over to take what they like out of the pile, and the rest will go to charity. I am now about to go through all the junk stored in a display cabinet that has been filled to the brim for years.  Most of the things in there have been used once or twice and the rest I do use but they really shouldn't be in that cabinet.  This is another piece of furniture that is going through the deneiling process. I have had this cabinet for about 10 years now, and it is time for it to go.  Hopefully I will find a loving home for it in someone else's home.

I still have to brace myself to tackle my ensuite.  That is a huge task, however I have refrained from buying any new makeup or cleansers etc for 3 months now, a miracle for me.  I have been using up all the things that I have, including samples, that are still ok.  I am not only de-cluttering I am saving myself serious amounts of dollars.  Why oh why has it taken this long to see the light?  Now the question is, how far can I go???????