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When I read that Effy invited us blog for the month of April I got excited. I do like to blog but don't always know what to say. Like I said, I got excited. Then the thought of having to think what to blog about for a whole month made me feel tired. "I don't want to HAVE to blog every day" I told a friend. I still feel somewhat the same way. But I will try and not be too hard on myself if it doesn't happen.
We moved last summer after downsizing from a 2 story house with a full basement into a one level manufactured home in an over 55 development. It is lovely with a big clubhouse that has a library, a workout room and kitchen and dining. There are monthly potluck dinners and special get-togethers. We have a place to walk that is flat which is good living in the mountains. There is a lovely park and a library branch directly across the street. We love living here. Our other house was on top of a mountain and we got snowed in a lot during the winter. We had 14 stairs to climb from the garage to the kitchen and that got old. Every time we come home from grocery shopping we are thankful we can walk right into the kitchen and not up all those stairs. Not only that but I have a washer and dryer right off the kitchen behind bifold doors. I now LOVE doing laundry. No more hauling laundry up and down the stairs from the basement.
This "new" house was completely furnished including a piano. I've heard that it is hard to get rid of a piano these days. We tried but no one wants to haul it away. So I decided to play. I have several boxes of music that I'd collected over the years that are still packed away. But this wasn't how I wanted to play anymore. A friend told me about a piano course on Udemy for only $9. I thought that was too good to be true. What a surprise though. It is all about learning chords and how to play open chords, closed ones and how to change chords easily moving up and down the keyboard. Then it goes on to explain and show how to add rhythm. So different than when I was a child taking piano lessons. I hated practicing so bad I spent that time standing in the corner for punishment. It wasn't fun. But playing chords is fun. I had so much fun that I bought two more courses and I just play as I want, no "shoulds", no pressure. Because the courses are online I can access them any time I want.
The piano needs work. It needs tuning and something was spilled on the keys. I can use it as is. I'm not sure who to call for an estimate yet. I do have a portable keyboard though, so I will always have something to play on.
As my husband and I near our 80th birthdays we decided we want to downsize. We live in a big house with 14 stairs from the garage to the upstairs and carrying bags from the grocery store is still doable, but cumbersome. We want a house on a single level. So it's time to de-clutter or as Rick Wilkes from Thriving now says, "Right sizing." What feels good to keep? What do I want to release?
Each time we moved I packed 50 boxes of books and magazines. I have 7 full bookcases. Why? Because I loved my books and had a hard time getting rid of them. I thought I was okay with this until I was on a call about clearing clutter. As I listened to the call a lot of emotions came up. Tears were streaming down my face. I didn't realize how emotional I was about my cluttered bookcases. Why was I having so much trouble releasing books? They felt like my friends. Or maybe I thought I'd need them sometime. How many angel books does a person need? How many Astrology and Tarot books did I need to keep?
As Rick suggested, "hold a book in your hand and see on a scale of zero to ten how you feel about it. If it's less than a 7 can you let it go? " He suggested tapping on any emotions that came up. I started doing this and easily filled up 2 boxes that I took to a spiritual book store and actually made some money! I have two more boxes filled to take to the same store and two boxes filled to donate to our library for the Friends of the Library book sale. I could send books to be sold on Amazon.com for an Amazon gift card.
This is what right sizing looks like! This feels good, more peaceful.
We also cut the cable on our tv too because the prices kept rising and it just didn't feel right to pay that much anymore. We bought an outside antenna for local stations and a Roku. Then we subscribed to sling tv and saved over $80 a month. I feel more peaceful about releasing the TV clutter too and my TV watching habits have changed for the better.
So if you want to experience right sizing for yourself you might want to take a look at this clearing clutter program that helped me so much. You'll get to listen to the tapping call I was on and there will be another call this month that you can participate in.
