Amanda vs. clutter

My husband and I have colds, and our bedroom is just as congested at we are.

With the both of us under the weather, neither one of has had the energy to tidy or clean. Our room is currently a wasteland of unimportant documents, unused products, and empty boxes leftover from Christmas. We are one step away from becoming a bad episode of hoarders.

My first response? Get this crap out of here! Throw it away, donate, burn it! Do anything but let it stay abandoned on my floor. This may sound a bit drastic, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a great idea.

A big part of materialistic lifestyle is to own and collect, but most of what I have has no actual value. I've been reading up on minimalism and I'm beginning to think it may help me break away from my spending habit. My brain works better in a clean and clear working environment, and with all the "stuff" I have it's impossible to maintain.

Goal of the week? Get rid of the clutter. All of it.

I'm going to work on a list on what I believe is truly essential. I'll probably post it, just for the record. I hope to keep it under 100 things - but I hear it's easier said than done.

Anything broken that is important will be placed on a "to be fixed / replaced" list.

Anything useless with be thrown away or donated.

Paperwork of importance will be filed.

Stuff that goes with a hobby will be organized. And only the highest quality of the stuff will make the cut.


Wish me luck, I'll be posting on my progress,

Emotional

I've been a bit run down lately. Sick really. Not the normal cold sort of sick that everyone has been getting, but the nagging long-term kind (that could be potentially dangerous if I continue to let it go). I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at eighteen and now at twenty-four it's been nothing but a constant battle with my own body. It's my own fault really, I have been personally ignoring it. Simply, too afraid to face the truth.

This year I am making a BIG attempt to fix this. Uninsured since twenty-one, I am finally settling down financially and investing in the things that really matter. I bought my first personal insurance plan (completely out of pocket - I don't work for a company that provides it.) and made sure to get the absolute best I could afford. Good insurance policies (especially ones that cover specialists) do not come cheap.

 I will confess publicly that I am a materialistic person. Not so much in a flashy fashionable sense, but in a "I'm bored and too drained to do anything worthwhile, lets just go spend money" way. For the past couple months I've spent away my winter blues by spending just about every cent I made. It led me down a path of poor mental and physical health, debt, and emotional detachment. Too many hours have been spent on the internet, feeling like crap, looking for the next object of desire.

But what I really want is experiences, not things. 

This means I have to get better, which means I have to spend money only what matters. Nothing else.

This is so much easier said than done. As a TWENTY-SOMETHING, FEMALE, GAMER & NERD advertisements and products are being pushed in my face everywhere I go. If it's not make up and cute clothes, it's the up and coming video game or gadget. I'm really just fed up with it all, I want to focus more on REAL LIFE a term that would of been so odd to use when I was a child.

I'm not sure where I'll start. I got myself a program that will help me with a budget and learn a little more about taking care of money. But there is so much more than that. Frugal living, D.I.Y, minimalism. I'm not sure which direction will be best for me, but I hope to find it.

So now that this blog is basically defunct, I'll be using it as a personal account on recovering from materialism. I'll be focusing on books I want to read, self improvement, and D.I.Y education. Maybe something will come of it?

Until then,
It's the first step that matters. Right?
Amanda