Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details. (Note: the schedule is now full until March — but if you don’t mind waiting, feel free to send me your submission!)
This week, I’m excited to present Lena Wetherbee’s story. I love her garbaj project — what a fabulous and creative way to declutter!
Lena writes:
Photo by Lena Wetherbee
I recently started a blog, www.garbaj.com, on which I am giving away 1,000 things that are cluttering up my house. You can read the full history of gar•baj on the blog (see “history, or how it came to this”), but here’s the abbreviated version:
Once upon a time I was a vagabond. From age 18 to 26 I moved eleven times. From one side of the country to the other. From one side of the ocean to the other. Each time with a couple of suitcases. Moving is a cleansing thing. Each time you leave one place and head for another you shed your skin of things. I was light and free in the world.
But about twelve years ago I stopped moving. And the minute I stopped moving, THINGS started to stick to me. I filled up apartment after ever-bigger apartment. Moving got harder and harder. Then (DANGER! DANGER!) I BOUGHT a house, that staple of the American Dream, and lost all control. I was rolling down Mount Consumption covered in double-sided tape, gathering speed and THINGS as I went.
Then, after about ten years of this blind, unthinking, acquisition, I met a wonderful man, fell in love, and got married. And we were no spring chickens, so he already had his OWN houseful of crap. And then (and here it really gets crazy), the last living parent of one of us died, and ANOTHER whole household was streaming in to be sorted, negotiated, assimilated. So we now had THREE housefuls of stuff in one house. We have no less than FOUR perfectly functional irons, for example…and we never, ever iron!
And yet in spite of all this, we were still buying more stuff. Rolling faster and faster and faster down must-have-it hill, until we hit the bottom. And all that stuff came rolling down too and landed on top of us. And we couldn’t breathe. We were beyond the saturation point. There are no closets in our old Victorian house, so we began to notice that piles of STUFF had accumulated everywhere. Tables were not for sitting at anymore, but for short-term storage. Entertaining required taking days off from work ahead of time to stuff the stuff somewhere unseen. When people “dropped by” they had to stay on the porch, even in February. Drawers didn’t shut properly. We started to lose really big things. Like the tent we couldn’t find when we were about to go camping. We lost a TENT in our house!
But finally, one day, I woke up. Actually, as it happened, I opened the armoir in the dining room. Probably to stuff something in there. And like some clichéd cartoon – its entire contents fell out on my head. A game of Monopoly (we have 3 versions – Original, Lord of the Rings and Nightmare Before Christmas) rained down and apart. Monopoly money scattered all over the floor, collecting dog hair. After that came a yoga mat, a bag full of mismatched mittens and some scarves, some finger paint, a dog backpack (broken), and many, many, many more things.
As I knelt in the pile of disgorged miscellany, carefully returning the Monopoly game to its box, dollar by dollar, I thought…enough is enough. How many versions of a game that takes four hours to play does a family who never plays board games need? Did we BUY all these things? We are literally bursting at the seams. And we lost a TENT in our HOUSE!
And so, in a Monopoly money and mismatched mitten rain – gar•baj was born. It has been a lot of fun so far, even though I haven’t been getting rid of things at quite the brisk pace I had intended. And I definitely don’t recommend that all you minimalists out there go shopping on gar•baj for my free crap. But I do hope you’ll check it out and see how wonderful it has been for me to halt in my seemingly unstoppable consumption tracks, and start to give things back. This picture is of a (still available on gar•baj) bottle of blue that I had been saving for who knows what. I’m letting it go so that I can spend more time sitting on my porch, staring at the blue sky, and less time managing my collection of empty bottles that I might (never) need one day.
{If you’d like to read more about minimalist living, please consider buying my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Wow great story. Luckily our house isn’t that filled up yet and we’re starting to declutter already. I put things on the french internet marketplace for people to get for free, or against postage to send it to them. And yes, also started a blog (but not so sophisticated as gar.baj) to announce to my friends that I have stuff to give away. In the hope that someone else can use it, is looking for it as a present. As far as the books are concerned, we’re also open to trade it for a book we haven’t read yet. So that at least the number of books we have is not increasing, but the number of ones we like to read is. My simple version of gar.baj : http://2ndvie.blogspot.com/
Wonderful post to wake up on a Monday morning to read.
Love gar.baj !
I think some where in the last storage area to declutter….I also…have one of those blue bottles.
Why ?
Photos on your blog are beautiful. Off in a great Monday morning mood. Thanks
“I was rolling down Mount Consumption covered in double-sided tape, gathering speed and THINGS as I went.” Whahaaa, this is fantastic! And familiar. Luckily we CAN change this!
Oh, this is one of the funniest things I’ve read for ages. “And we lost a TENT in our house!”
We too have two versions of Monopoly – one Glasgow and one Dutch. But we (sort of) have a reason. That way, we can play with my Dutch in-laws. We never have in the ten years since they gave us it but…
I’m away to check out your site right now – it sounds like a great concept.
Karen (Scotland)
What a great, funny post! Perfect way to start the week! I have one of those ‘blue bottles’, too…but I love it and standing alone against a sparse white nook, I am keeping it! Your gar.baj site is hilarious–I love it!
What a fun way to approach paring down! Remember, it’s the journey, not the destination! :)
I really enjoyed reading your story! I could picture it and I even though I know it wasn’t all funny, it made me laugh.
great story, told so well and oh so relate-able!
How I can relate… My husband and I also met in our 30s and both had a house. I had gone back to school, so when I moved in with him (during final exams!) I did not take the time to weed stuff. I graduated, we got married and had 2 kids (with more stuff heading our way!). By the times the kids were getting older and we were starting to catch up to the 2 household contents, one of our parents’ house had to be emptied. Most stuff landed at our place. I spent more than 2 years selling stuff on eBay and donating things! We moved and finally released more stuff getting to a “normal” clutter level. :oP We are finishing our basement right now and all its content is on the main floor. After 3 months of it, I’m dreaming of minimalism and working on it. :o)
Thanks for sharing your story… and yes, we also lost some pretty big things in that house/warehouse of ours! LOL
This is hilarious! I’m signing up with your blog…and I am forwarding this to relatives who’ve lost far more than tents in their (ware)houses!!
I just got totally lost in your world of stuff. Your writing just sucked me in with its humour and honesty. Heading over to check out your blog now. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on joining the minimalist movement!
Great blog, Lena — we’re almost neighbors (I’m across the river in Jersey but sorry, no interest in in the Bumpits LOL). What a clever way to get rid of the clutter!
“A game of Monopoly (we have 3 versions – Original, Lord of the Rings and Nightmare Before Christmas) rained down and apart.”
Haha I laughed a lot, what great imagery!
Thanks to all for such nice comments! I’m so glad you enjoyed my little minimalist experiment. The more I get rid of the more I want to get rid of. Much more gar•baj coming soon!
I’ve just picked myself back up off the floor where I was rolling around laughing. Thanks for a fabulously well written story. I can relate to alot. I have been decluttering and recluttering for years (darn that double-sided sticky tape!). Started my most recent and serious declutter in September, got rid of 270 things; October – 168 things; November – 100. So far it’s only been mine and the kids things. Hubby has seriously baffling reasons why we need to keep 3 chainsaws, 3 or 4 power drills, a shed full of “light weight” and “compact” camping/hiking gear (doesn’t make sense really). Is there really such a thing as Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly? That’s hilarious.
Thanks for the great read. Am scared to go to your blog though…..
Carolyn, it seems that we are married to the same man! I too have been sticking mainly to my own things (of which there is an unlimited supply), but he knows I’m coming for him. We have the same shed full of camping stuff…except we don’t have a shed! And yes, there is now Nightmare Before Christmas everything. And we have it all (figurines, magnets, posters, keychains, unchboxes…and of course the aforementioned Monopoly). And perhaps you are wise not to venture into gar•baj. You would not be the first earnest minimalist to fall prey to its tantalizing wares…
I must appreciate this out loud: “And so, in a Monopoly money and mismatched mitten rain – gar•baj was born” What fabulous alliteration! Great writing, as well as content!
Anybody live with a partner who refuses to co-operate with decluttering? I know I must look after my own patch first, and have made great strides in doing so, but I’m almost at the end of the line, and find that his clutter is expanding to fill the space! Horrors!!! He has issues with people wanting him to give stuff away (I think since his sister decluttered on his behalf without his permission after he left home!) so this is a VERY touchy subject! It’s touchy for me too, as I’m coming from a home just like Lena describes, and vowed I would never live like that in my own house…help!
Lena that’s a truly brilliant well written piece!
I forwarded it to a fried who’s about to drown in her stuff it won’t make her de-clutter but it might make her laugh!!!
Oh this is so funny! I laughed all the way through as I read it to my husband, who also enjoyed it. At some points I could hardly read I was laughing so hard. Well written and hilarious! Thanks.
I’m headed to your blog.
great post & looking forward to looking at your site–curiosity only, ha. I too became more minimalist than my peers as a result of a few moves. But how the stuff creeps in over the years! Recently re-discovered our Mexican pottery, a wedding gift that I cherish, on a shelf in a closet…moved there to make room for other collectibles & forgotten! So, I decided it’s time to pare down again. past time.
What wonderful writing! I’m off to visit your blog. :-)
I had never read that piece before. I thought it was hilarious. I found some things to give away and I am looking for more. I would like to give away some of my husband’s ceramic mugs but he wants to keep all of them. I think he has a lot of shirts, too; but he likes his closet full. After Thanksgiving, we need to go to the e-recycling place and take a bunch of batteries and electrical cords in.
My husband showed me my shirt yesterday and said he wanted it. I said when I lose weight he can have it if he gives away 2 shirts. We just gave away 3 big bags of stuff. There is more to go. I have a stack of magazines for the library and more pencils for the children’s room there. I just bought 6 toys for Toys for Tots.
We just made a trip to Goodwill yesterday and I am starting a new pile. I found a small blanket I forgot about on a shelf in the closet. There is a jeans jacket that needs to go. When I have filled up 2 more bags, we’ll make another trip. I have a dresser in the guest room I want to completely empty. There is always something that can go.
We make a trip to Goodwill about every 2 weeks. My son got married and took big boxes of his books with him. We had a visit from a nurse from our health insurance today and we talked about hoarders. There are many in my family and I saw many when I worked for the Census Bureau. It would make me crazy to have stuff all over.
Oh you made me laugh out loud on a packed commuter train! You have a wonderful way of writing. I look forward to reading more.
My daughter moved in with us after 20 years on her own. An empty closet and empty dresser are great in an emergency. My younger son is coming tomorrow to take some furniture and books home. I plan to take 4 boxes of dishes to Goodwill. I am getting rid of stuff we don’t use so my daughter can see how much stuff she still has.
My daughter is still here. She has gotten rid of so much stuff. She had boxes and bags and piles of stuff. Just today she got rid of more. I am looking for old blankets to give to the animal shelter. I know we have them.
I looked in my husband ‘s files because I needed to get rid of 26 things. I found owner’s manuals for things we don’t own. Insurance papers from 5 years ago, vet bills from a dead cat, and old bank statements got me to my goal. I filled a bag for the food pantry because they are looking for warm clothes.