It's
been almost 3 years since I became a minimalist.
My original plan was get rid of my furniture so I can renovate but when I gave away my furniture, I loved the freed up space and I also realized it's so much easier to clean! Haha... So for almost 3 years now, I only have 1 chair, a small table, a La-Z-boy and a mattress on the floor (plus basic appliances). This is the reason why I don't invite friends over to my place - they either have to sit on each other's lap or sit on the floor. Haha...
But visiting an Ivatan house during my recent trip to Batanes made me realize that even if I consider myself a minimalist, I still am not compared to the Ivatans.
Here's inside the Ivatan main house (the kitchen and toilet & bath are independent structures).
My original plan was get rid of my furniture so I can renovate but when I gave away my furniture, I loved the freed up space and I also realized it's so much easier to clean! Haha... So for almost 3 years now, I only have 1 chair, a small table, a La-Z-boy and a mattress on the floor (plus basic appliances). This is the reason why I don't invite friends over to my place - they either have to sit on each other's lap or sit on the floor. Haha...
But visiting an Ivatan house during my recent trip to Batanes made me realize that even if I consider myself a minimalist, I still am not compared to the Ivatans.
Here's inside the Ivatan main house (the kitchen and toilet & bath are independent structures).
It's an open space like my place but look, they only have 3 chests for their personal belongings.
There are 3 people who live in this house - the parents and one child - so I am assuming each one has his/her own chest. I am definitely far from this - my only stuff that could fit in one chest are my books! Haha...
Anyway, since I did my annual purge, I had to exert more effort this time to shave off more stuff.
After reading "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo, I was ready to deal with items that have sentimental value like bridesmaid gowns! I have 12! Crazy, right?! It's almost half of Katherine Heigl's in 27 dresses. Haha...
So for posterity, I just took photos. Here they are -
These are from weddings of 2 family members, 4 cousins and 6 friends. I could clearly identify what I wore in 9 of the weddings but there are 3 which I am mixed up (especially the 2 orange ones because they look similar). Memory lapse. Haha...
What made it easy to part with them is what Kondo said - what prevents us from parting with things with sentimental value is that we'll lose precious memories along with them but memories don't vanish even if we discard the objects associated with them. Totally agree. Actually, what's funnier in my case is even if I have kept the physical objects, I still forgot to which weddings 3 gowns are associated with! I know who the 3 friends are but I can't assign what gown I wore in each of their weddings. Wahaha....
Clearly, time to let go. Besides, I'm far from walking down the aisle (still missing a groom! Haha...) and I'm far from doing a 27 Dresses' theme wedding because my concept of a wedding is a super small wedding and strictly no gowns (not even a bridal gown), only practical dresses which you can wear again are allowed. Haha...
If you want to dispose of your old bridesmaid gowns but you don't know anyone with the same body size as you are, you can either donate them to Caritas Manila's Segunda Mana Project or donate them to a random gown rental shop. Maybe because of your good will, the gown rental shop owner might rent them out for less or even lend them for free to people who can't afford to pay.
The other stuff I got rid of are trophies from golf tournaments. Years ago, I got into golf and I was really bad at it! But even then, my friend and I joined tournaments. My friend was really good at it and she usually bagged the championship trophies. You might be wondering how I got to be runner-up. It's because there were just 4 female players - which means the 2 other players were worse than me! Wahaha...
There was also a time when I got the trophy for lowest net. How? Because I had the highest handicap! Wahaha.... Other than winning trophies, you know what else I won during golf tournaments? Major prizes like appliances in the raffle. Haha...
I won't post the photos of the trophies here anymore because they are more of comic relief than symbols of achievement. Haha....
Anyway, when de-cluttering and purging, it's important that you overcome your emotional attachment to material possessions. Once you've overcome your fear of letting go items with sentimental value, streamlining your other possessions should be a breeze. I was able to fill up 7 more bags of assorted stuff. But nope, I am still nowhere near the Ivatan chest level. Haha.... :)
