For years I have wanted to start a blog but never felt passionate enough about anything worthy of documenting or recording. I also was going through my forties with my hair on fire after a divorce, close to financial ruin, and rebuilding a career. I hadn’t worked outside of the home for sixteen years. My life was in chaos; I was completely dependent on someone else for our family’s financial future and I barely had time to breathe as I navigated impending midlife, raising a teenager, and eventually divorcing my past life of comfort and security. I had a lot on my plate and the idea of blogging became a distant memory tucked somewhere in a file that I called, “someday”.
Fast forward to the present. I am 52 which many might say I’m past midlife, but I hear 50 is the new 40, right? I currently have a decent career, and am doing my best to unwind my past few years of near financial ruin. The last few months have been an evolution towards reopening my desire to write, to share, and to ignite my passion about something other than climbing the corporate ladder, albeit with a very delayed start.
I have the advantage of working from home. I thank the pandemic and my current employer for that gift. Unfortunately, the downside of that is I am surrounded by my stuff all day every day. Eventually, I started to stress over just how much stuff I had accumulated and I realized it was these choices which were ruining my financial future. Yes, I knew those things years ago but I chose to ignore and instead chose to be self-indulgent and shopped for various reasons, which I will cover in another post.
I have been decluttering my small home. It’s barely 1300 SF with a one car garage. You’d think I couldn’t possibly have that much to declutter. Yet, I have been working on this for the past 6-9 months. One area at a time, one box at a time, another box that sits on top of that previously decluttered box, etc. I also have started to study minimalism and essentialism and finding joy in simplicity and owning less. The things in my home were pretty and made my home look nice visually, I assume, but I had too much shoved under beds, in boxes and dresser drawers where visitors couldn’t see what I had squirreled away. For someone who used to pride herself on frugality, I was overwhelmed at what I had accumulated.
From there began my path to a modified minimalism. I am striving to be more conscious of my purchases, to live life more simply, to value positive interactions with people more than my closet full of designer clothes. I am inviting you on this journey with me and I hope you, too, may find inspiration with me. My intent is to write about topics that have value to others and may include outdoor adventure, travel, cooking, frugal living, saving on groceries, decluttering, and exploring life beyond the ‘stuff’ I own. Thank you for being here.