Pam's Blog

Thirty-five more photos. The harder (both emotionally and physically) stuff is left and it is more of a matter of time to get delve in deeply to sort as well as be gentle with my attachments.

Getting more into the difficult-to-deal-with stuff. The creative process tends to generate steps in a physical form and it’s hard to let go. I’m attached to my images. The digital world makes it easier to NOT generate so many physical prints but it is still part of my process.

I’ve put off purging prints (some framed, some matted) for many years. And, here they are, still untouched, unused, unhung. This year they (some of them, anyway) go. There’s still an envelope (or five) that hold prints that resonated with me even today. So, they will go some other time.

Two shirts, on pair of socks (not even mine!?!), one cord, on piece of ephemera, two envelopes, two pieces of cardboard, two screws, one stray ear plug and six discs of old photos (“back ups” I never use).

Nine issues of “Vegetarian Times” circa 2013 and 2014 and eight pairs of white socks. #minsgame

It’s getting harder to find things that don’t add value to my life. Here are 15 random things that are in the to go pile. Not sure what I will have for tomorrow!

One wooden box, one milk crate, mittens, razor, blades (that don’t go with the razor), hair ties, barrette, two scarves, one dress, five shirts.

Thirty one cds, a cd holder, divided pyrex dish with glass top, glass cutting board, snowman decoration. #minsgame

Expired food items. I have already noticed how easy it is to find things and retrieve things from the kitchen cupboards and frig just with this effort of getting rid of the first ten days worth of stuff. #minsgame

More kitchen stuff: veggie peeler, cookbook, oil spray thing, deviled egg plate, assorted tops and bottoms of plastic storage containers. #minsgame

Two bowls

This is the third month I’ve played the Minimalist Game. http://www.theminimalists.com/game/
The first month I was fairly strict counting things and keeping the number of things tied to the day of the month. In March, I made the day of the month the minimum number of things, not stopping if I was on a roll. I’m carrying on in the same manner in April.

At the beginning of the third month it started to be more difficult, both emotionally and finding areas in the house that hadn’t at least had a cursory purge.

Emotions are tied to certain things for me; games, photos, books. The emotional attachment to games is a double edged sword. Happy memories of a LOT of game playing in my childhood and a sense of sadness and loss knowing it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be playing those games in the future. The day I tossed decades of film negatives I knew I’d tossed something
irreplaceable. And it just seems wrong to pitch books, both those I haven’t read and those that I have on my shelf because I adore.

Then there’s the easy spots, like the kitchen drawer that contains the two boxes of zip locks, wax paper and aluminum foil. One of the technics in the purging process is to empty the whole drawer or closet and only put back what you want, leaving the rest to go. This allows you to “see” things that you don’t necessarily see just because they are always there.

Ninety-five Twist Ties

When I go to the bulk food store, the items come back in bags with twist ties. In the drawer of zip lock bags, there was an entire zip lock bag of twist ties, new, never used (and not one bag that would need a twist tie). In addition, there were loose twist ties, ones that tied the bulk food bags. And as I emptied the drawer there were more twist ties, and more twist ties and more twist ties. Ninety-five twist ties all totaled.

And, scrunched in the back of the drawer was a coupon for ziplock bags that expired in 1995.