Minimalism: Who Needs 4 Wireless Routers?

Photo of the items I just donated to Goodwill

I just finished doing another purge of items from my apartment that are no longer purposeful for me. As I continued my journey that every possession in my home serves a purpose and brings me joy, I am going through and justifying how each item adds value to my life, and if it doesn't, to be okay with letting it go. Mission: To live more deliberately with less.

Here are some of the items that I let go either via donating them to Goodwill or trashing them:

• Buttons: I have managed to keep every single extra button that has come with my clothes, in case I loose one to be sewed on to the clothing. I was able to purge almost 50 buttons because of two reasons:
• 1) Despite having a home economics class in fourth grade, and the numerous YouTube videos, I do not know how to sew on a button.
• 2) I had no idea what piece of clothing the buttons went to.
• Wireless Routers: I had four wireless routers, and only one of them are being used. How I accumulated three extra routers, I have no idea. This is a prime example of when you have so much stuff, you loose track of your household inventory, and you continue to duplicate items; or in my case, quadruple items!
• Makeup bags: Any women that has made makeup purchases from inside a mall understands that it is quite easy to have quite a collection of free makeup bags. I ended up getting rid of approximately 15 of them, and I kept two.
• Tote bags: For those that didn't know, in 2012, Seattle banned plastic bags, and so I have accumulated numerous tote bags. I was able to rid myself of almost 20 tote bags.
• Small kitchen appliances: Getting rid of kitchen items is one of the hardest things for me with becoming a minimalist, and it is definitely the room of my apartment that hasn't been decluttered too much. However, I was able to justify getting rid of a few items:
• Panini grill: The last time I used this grill was over a year ago, and everything I used it for, I can now just use my Toaster Oven to cook. However, I have been told that Panini grills make the crispiest bacon, but since I do not eat pork, bye bye Panini grill!
• Smoothie blender: This is one of these purchase that I told myself that I was going to use every day, and that lasted for about two days back in 2010. I then was using it to blend homemade soups, but then I bought an immersion blender. The immersion blender takes up less space, and blends soups and sauces so much easier.
• Overall  reducing the number of Tupperware containers. In this purge, I was able to remove seven containers.
• Photo printer: Can you remember the last time you printed photos? I can, but it happens so rarely, and I have a 24-hour photo print studio within one block of my apartment, so there is no need to own a personalized photo printer.
• Accessories: I am extremely low maintenance when it comes to my hair, it is either up in a ponytail or it is completely down. Therefore, I got rid of hair clips and many of my headbands. In addition, I got rid of a lot of jewelry that I haven't wore in years because it is too sparkly, heavy, or not my style any longer.
• Hangers: As I have been getting rid of clothing, I have accumulated a lot of empty hangers.
• Wall Pictures and clocks: I started removing things from my wall now that bring me no joy, and I realized that I had a clock on my wall that I haven't changed it's battery in three years, and it has probably been dead for three years. So obviously I do not rely on it to tell time.

Each time I purge, I noticed there are less items that I trash and more that are being donated. You may be thinking to yourself, that you do not need to declutter, or you may not know where to start. I offer you these no-time starts:

• Go to your medicine cabinet and trash all medication that has expired.
• Go to you refrigerator, and trash/compost all expired food.
• Recycle old newspapers, paper advertisements, expired coupons, and magazines.