Blake loves this author named Robert Caro. He's a Pulitzer Prize winner and notorious for being uber-dedicated to writing. We're talking he-takes-ten-YEARS-to-write-a-book dedication. His wife is his editor, and they have put together some incredible (non-fiction) books over the years, and have also sparked a bit of inspiration in our little life.
You see, Robert Caro didn't start out as a Pulitzer Prize winner. Duh. He started out as a guy with an idea, an undying will, and a wife who supported him fully. Long story short (although the long story is actually quite interesting), Caro and his wife lived month-to-month for years as he hacked away at his book. They struggled, they probably ate a decent amount of canned tuna, and guess what it got them in the end - success.
Blake and I are in a similar position, and it's honestly very scary. He is in school full-time pursuing a PhD and he works part-time as a teaching assistant and also as a research assistant. He has a stable income. I, however, do not - yet! The Robert Caro story reminded me of how you have to sacrifice to do something great. Blake is working on something great. I am working on something great. Good things don't come easy, and the struggle is well worth it in the end.
So what does that have to do with my intro about Young House Life? Well, wonder no more: The lady of the blog, Sherry, has plenty of posts about minimizing. I love minimizing. :) There is something refreshing about cleaning out closets and getting rid of "stuff" we don't use anymore. I haven't purged the house in quite a while, and I think there's no better time than now. We're about to move (hopefully in just a few weeks!), and it would be nice to start out feeling less cluttered.
Having less is freeing. Less mess, less clutter, less to clean, less to worry about, less to pay for, less to hold on to. Maybe having less money than anticipated will be freeing, as well. I'll be free to craft, free to be creative, free to write, free to play board games, free to cook the meals that I normally don't have time to cook. I am, in some weird way, actually looking forward to this. :)
So.... for the rest of the month, I am going to take a challenge from Young House Life. I am going to work towards getting rid of 100 things we don't use/need. Maybe I'll just chunk them in the trash (like I just did with some old makeup), maybe I'll donate, maybe I'll try to sell items on eBay/Amazon. Regardless, by the end of August, our house is going to be down 100 things... or maybe more. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment