Minimilising Blonde!

I’ve never been much of a party animal, well that’s a lie I had one summer in my late teens, I was single and spent most Friday and Saturday nights partying through out the summer. This literally lasted the one summer until I got fed up of spending all day Saturday and Sunday (my only days off) in bed with a hangover. By my 20’s I was over the party scene and other than the odd night out here and there, I never looked back. New Years eve in that respect has no impact on me. I enjoy the extra time out of the office and throw everything into preparing myself for the New Year. Write down my goals, organise my diary, clean the house. One of my goals this year was to spend less, live with less and earn more. I wanted to minimalize myself of everything that didn’t mean everything to me!

I started with cosmetics, I wear one mascara, one lipgloss, one blush, two eye shadows, and one eye liner. So why did I need 8 different versions of each when I only use one? If it wasn’t in my daily essentials – it was gone. Nails – I like to do my own little manicures at home, but I had enough nail polishes to open my own nail salon… 80% of the shades I don’t wear, some of them were duplicates, or basically the same shade. That 80% was given to the niece and that was that.

Next I moved onto the wardrobe. My question to myself? “what is my signature style?” what colours do I mainly wear? What outfits make me feel like I have my sass on? What clothes do I enjoy training in? How many pairs of work leggings do I actually need?

So I started sifting through the last however many years for ‘impulse buys’ and ‘revamp my wardrobe efforts’ 2 bin liners to donate to the local charity stores, 1 bin liner to sell on ebay… and I hadn’t even started on the shoes yet. You can imagine the horror on my face as I took a minute to breath and realised just how much money I had wasted with my ridiculous shopping habits. Then and there I vowed that unless I need it, or I’m really in love with it – I do not buy it. My Saturday shopping spree’s are no more.

Shoes, ladies – our guys moan about them, they get in the way, we own 30 pairs and wear 10 at the most – do we need the remaining 20? Nope, they were a gonner too! I narrowed it down to my training shoes, a couple of pairs of casual trainers, a couple of pairs of work heels and my winter boot boots.

Accessories – I spent years buying cheap costume jewellery and funky hair clips to which I used none off - I wear one pair of Pandora earrings the mister bought me for Christmas – the rest went, a pendant & chain around my neck – I kept my good quality ones with meaning behind them and the rest went. I wear a Fitbit watch on my right wrist and either my Swarovski crystal bangle my sister bought me or my troll bead bracelet on the other – the rest went.

Finally Bags – I kept my Sixpack Fitness bag, my sister bought me a gorgeous little weekend bag from River Island for Christmas which I kept and one going out clutch bag. The rest – went.

I really was ruthless, but what I was left with is a clear, easily organised personal space full of the items that I truly value and that to me is worth more than every item I let go off.

See if it’s not adding value to your personal space, it’s taking value away from it.

This year people will see a very minimalistic version of me, one that appreciates and loves everything that she owns. One that wont waste money, one that picks quality over quantity. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more proud or relieved to have let the rest go!