Simplifying When the Kids are Grown

I have decided that after putting it off, and many fits and starts, that the best advice is to “start where you are.” So this is where I am. In the middle of the process of simplifying my life, my attitudes, my eating, my consumption. I say I am in the middle because I really got back on the path about a year and a half ago, and I still have oh so far to go.

As someone who identifies with the 21st century term “multipotentialite,” I am not only constantly changing what I am interested in, but I am voraciously reading everything that has anything to do with those interests (currently minimalism, herbalism, rightsizing, etc.) and getting what Jonathan Milligan, Joel Zaslofsky and others call “stuck in the research.”

I think the biggest difference between me and most of the other blogs out there about downsizing, simplifying, finding your passion by living with less, is that I am in my fifties. Harsh admission to be sure, but there you have it. And in my fifties (52), I have already been through the simplicity movement once as a younger self, and I find that I am dealing with circumstances in the process of decluttering that (imho) a 20- or 30something can’t really appreciate on the same level as those of us who have raised our kids, lived in our homes for over 20 years, and discovered that an object, while it may not bring us Marie Kondo’s level of joy, can certainly have enough nostalgia to make parting with it–even if we’ll never use it again–a much more difficult process than holding it and then letting it go. And then there’s also the dealing with my kids’ stuff (who are 22 and 24), which holds nostalgia and meaning on its own. But that’s for another post for another day.

So here I go, jumping in where I am. Seeing what the simple life brings now that the kids are grown.

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