Can't talk now, making the switch to minimalism...

I've been posting with the consistency of a 20-year-old Promises outpatient. (It's that rehab clinic the celebribrats go to...Britney, Lindsay, etc....nevermind.) So no comments lately...Well...that's okay. I came into this blogging world alone, and alone I shall wander. Plus, I know there be lurkers.

It's just that I've been decluttering, you see. Well, half decluttering and half reading decluttering tips online, which allows me to virtually experience the release of decluttering without any pesky necessity for getting-off-my-ass-and-actually-doing-anything.

We have gotten rid of a mound of stuff in the run-up to baby's arrival, though. Mountains of clothes. Piles of old batteries (those can just go right in the garbage, right? :^) Entire cities of CD jewel cases, old knicknacks, paperback books, and reams and reams of paper, magazines, and old phone bills.

I've got to say...IT FEELS SO GOOD to get rid of all this crap. I'm not saying we're anywhere near crapless, but our crap quotient has dwindled to a shadow of its former self. And as a bonus, we might be able to squeeze a newborn infant into our house now.

Something magical has happened while we've been going through this process: my husband and I have become habitual declutterers.

I was the first to make the evolutionary leap, deciding to get rid of anything I haven't used in more than a year. At first, my husband had a hard time with this. He's more frugal than I am and doesn't like to part with purchased goods. But just last night I caught him going through his closet muttering to himself, "Now what else can I get rid of in here?" It nearly brought a tear to my eye.

Something else I've noticed since this process started: I'm really hesitant to buy new stuff now. I mean, heh heh, don't get me wrong. There will always be room for shoes. But now that we have all this glorious space, the thought of clogging it up with junk seems abhorrent.

Here are a few GREAT decluttering blogs I've come across on my journey:

Unclutterer (a fab site for decluttering tips and tricks)
FlyLady (a great site if you have trouble establishing a cleaning routine)
ZenHabits (philosophical approaches to simplicity and minimalism)
LifeHacker (technical tools to make life simpler)

And for you writers out there, check out these old-school detechnifiers that reduce the mental clutter and formatting temptations of Word and Wordperfect:

Writeroom (a writing application that emulates old black-and-yellow screens with no formatting, etc., so you can't be distracted from the pure act of writing)
AlphaSmart (a keyboard that operates like an old-school typewriter so you can't go back and edit that last sentence into oblivion)

Stay tuned: I am now one step closer to posting those photos of the mailbox trip...