Simplify Your Life – How to Start Letting Go and Getting Rid of Things

365lpgAt the beginning of the month, I committed to a year of radical simplification – at least radical for me. Influenced by my Full On 365 blog, I decided to call it SIMPLIFY 365!

Frankly, I was feeling overwhelmed by the abundance that had entered my life, and wanted to create more time to simply BE. My first challenge is to get rid of things, and Part 1 of this is getting rid of my nice things that take too much energy.

Why start with my nice things? They are going to be harder to let go of, and I tend to start with the harder things so (hopefully) it just keeps getting easier. Plus, I’ll want to sell many of those things, which takes more time. My not-so-nice-stuff I can more easily and readily give away.

Plus, I have way too much crap to sort through to start with the not-so-nice-stuff (there…the real reason;).

BMW on trailerI began by selling my my BMW F650 GS. Here it is loaded in the trailer as I reluctantly bid it farewell. While I really didn’t want to do it, I wasn’t riding it much anymore. Alaska is not the most conducive environment for the cautious rider that I am, and having a baby made it something I probably wouldn’t be doing with any regularity for a few years. It tipped the wrong way in the current equation I am trying to hold in my mind:

Does the Energy In = Energy Received?

Nope. Not anymore!

That’s one of the things I am learning: this process of simplifying life is good to revisit regularly, because our needs change, our identity changes, our priorities shift.

photoWhen we hold onto things that are no longer part of who we are, they can literally and figuratively hold us back. (tweet this)

And holding myself back has nothing to do with creating SIMPLE FREEDOM.

mira skis tellurideThe other project is selling my condo in Telluride. I bought it at the peak of the real estate boom when I fell in love with this stunning box canyon. When the clouds parted as I stepped out to hit the mountain’s slopes for the first time, I looked up valley and a feeling ran through me that I hadn’t felt since I was a climbing guide in the Himalayas. I felt small, and wonderful, and in awe. I bought my condo the next day.

That’s me near outside of my condo above the San Miguel River the day I bought it. And yes, those AT skis were considered PHAT back in the day.

I loved living in Southern Oregon with Ashland’s Mediterranean-like weather, abundant fresh organic and locally grown food, my tight community of cosmically thinking friends, proximity to our local ski mountain, people on the cutting edge of alternative medicine, gorgeous rivers…but it did not have the abundance of BIG mountains that my soul yearned for. It had one big mountain near it – Shasta. But this woman get hot and heavy for mountain RANGES.

Now that I live in Alaska, I’ve got that kind of taken care of;)

So I put my condo on the market recently…at a time where it has dropped in value from when I bought it.

Will I lose money? Yes. Sometimes it just helps to be real, yo.

The question is…how much?

I have a feeling the Universe will support me on this one. My motorcycle sold in less than 24 hours. A good sign. My condo has had almost daily showings since listing it. A good sign.

My life has been filled with good signs, the Universe telling me I am on the right path in creating true simple freedom. Things are flowing.

While my condo is being shown, I am going to now embark on tackling dust and must and likely the gross bits of mice poo as I dive into the storage shed to begin THE GREAT PURGE. Wish me luck!

I will write more about specific tips as this journey continues, but I do know that the first step in learning how to start letting go and getting rid of things is to start with what is easiest and quickest so you can gain some momentum. For me, it happened to be letting go of some big and very nice things. That would give me the most bang for my buck in terms of letting go. And to be honest, selling a motorcycle and listing my condo were a lot easier to do than the alternative: sifting through ALL those boxes in storage…

Please share with me below any tips or stories you have of letting go of things when they no longer served you.

Note: This post is one in a series where I commit to radically simplifying my life in the upcoming year. To read about how it all started, click here.