Making Room For New Hobbies

"The objects that add value today may not add value tomorrow, which means we must be willing to let go of everything." --The Minimalists

An activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure is a hobby. If you were to look around my apartment, you might assume that my hobbies were hiking (many trail books on my bookshelf and nature photos on my wall), reading (the many books that I possess), cooking (cookbook on my kitchen counter), drinking coffee (my kitchen is decorated with a coffee theme), photography (I have pictures and polaroid photos on my walls),and painting (I have several acrylic canvases on my wall). 

Then, if you were to open up my closets, look through my drawers of my desk and dresser, and open my Tupperware containers, you would add a few more assumed hobbies. One of them being scrapbooking. During 2005-2010, I enjoyed scrapbooking and I was an avid shopper at Archivers (a store that is a scrapbooker's dream and nightmare). I was regularly purchasing items to scrapbook life events (graduations, travel trips, holidays), and my scrapbooking began consuming more and more space and money. Since 2010, I have not scrapbooked ANYTHING, but yet, I have continued to move my scrapbook "hobby" around with me from Omaha to Missouri to Seattle.

Recently, I had my scrapbooking items stored in two separate places in my Seattle apartment, one location was my entry-way closet, and the other location was my hallway closet. My scrapbook supplies were not easily accessible in these closets; it would be quite a process to access my supplies to utilize them, so I just chose not to use them because it was such a hassle....how did I think this was logical? I made something that I considered enjoyable, inaccessible, so I was technically depriving myself from being happy.

So when I paused and thought about how scrapbooking added purpose and happiness to my current life, there were two options: 1) Scrapbooking was still a hobby I wanted to pursue, and needed to rearrange my setup, so it would be more accessible and not hidden from me, or 2) Scrapbooking is no longer a hobby, and I need to get rid of it to make more room for another hobby. I decided on option 2; scrapbooking no longer held the same value and interest it once did in my life, so it was time to find the majority of my scrapbooking supplies a new home.

My former excessive consumerism is fully depicted in the photos below. Many of the stickers, cardstock, accessories haven't been open; they are brand new. Some of these supplies were purchased for items that I "hoped" to do one day. Other items, especially stickers, were purchased in over-abundance. For instance, I had 10 different sticker books for New York City. I visited NYC in 2009, and I never scrapbooked that 3-week trip.

I was able to find someone in my life that enjoys scrapbooking, but does not have the financial means to participated it at the level that they desired; therefore, my former hobby has been repurposed. Recently, they sent me a photo of something they had constructed utilizing my scrapbooking supplies, and I realized that my former hobby still brings a smile to my face and warms my heart, just now in an indirect way.

When was the last time that you reevaluated your interests and hobbies in your life? How much time, space, and money do they cost you for the amount of happiness you receive?

Scanning Party in Seattle

Minimalism has been the intent of my life for a while now. During one of my main decluttering session, I recycled over 100lbs of paper and photos. The paper were random pages, class notes from high school and college, and notes/letters from friends. The photos I recycled included pictures that had people that I no longer see/talk to, fuzzy pictures from the pre-digital camera era, and duplicate photos (I had hundreds of duplicate photos from when I use to print doubles from photo studios like Walgreens and Walmart). At the conclusion of that decluttering, I still had stacks and binders of paper, and albums full of photos. Since this decluttering, I haven’t glanced at those photos again or referenced the papers I kept. So I wanted to implemented a way to see these photos more often, and enjoy them, and also utilize the papers I kept; and that’s why I attended a “Scanning Party.”

The Minimalists coined the term, “Scanning Party”, which is an event you invite a few friends over, have some food and drinks, and together, go through photos and papers from your childhood/adulthood, and then, you scan all of those items. By scanning these items that were previously hidden away in albums, folders, and binders; I could free up space in my apartment, and also, have these meaningful photos and papers at my fingertips.

Therefore, I bought a portable scanner (I purchased a Doxie Q) that has allowed me to declutter my paper life immensely so far. I attended a Scanning Party with two other fellow minimalists, and we prepared and scanned documents during the party and had dinner. Afterwards, I still had many papers to scan, but the party allowed me to take those first steps towards digitalizing my life. Some of those documents were from work, recipes, Broadway playbills, receipts, product warranties, and contracts, etc. My next scanning assignment is to scan all the maps, trail guides, and magazine pages for hiking and traveling that I have collected for my future wanderings. Currently, all these pages are contained in an expandable file folder, and weighs about 15lbs. So I am looking forward to ridding my bookshelf of 15lbs of papers, and then I will move on to digitalizing my photos.

Can you think of something in your life that you could digitalize? Your papers, photos, music, or movies? There isn't a need to purchased a portable scanner (it can definitely be an investment item); for scanning documents because you can download a scanner app for your phone or tablet for free or under $5. My recommendation is to make sure that you have the documents saved/stored in two different places (backing up files is important, do it on an icloud, USB drive and/or harddrive).

"If we decide to create more and consume less, the world around us will transform through a tidal wave of purpose."

-The Minimalists

My portable scanner: Doxie Q

Digitalizing my teaching notes and pages I have ripped out from magazines I use to be subscribed to a while ago.

When you digitize your documents, you are left with a lot of folders, binders, and clear document holders leftover; so these items have been donated for someone else to get use out of them.

Second round of digitizing my documents.