Thanks for the magic.

(Roz Chast comics, newyorker.com and rozchast.com)

I've been doing some life-changing tidying up this year, just like the rest of the Internet. I have done this type of purging and dejunking many times before over the years, but I like the specific approach of giving thanks for what an item represents or once represented (like two huge bags of maternity clothes), accepting that it's over and that I have the memories, and moving on. 

I also like the extremely high standard Marie Kondo recommends holding all objects to. The most important impact that has had on me is that I think about this more and more before buying something in the first place. "How soon would I want to get rid of this once I've bought it?" The list of things worth buying just got so, so short.

Though I did enjoy this article, "The Materialism of Simplicity," which indicts minimizing as a first-world privilege that is its own form of consumption. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/materialism-simplicity

I'm trying not to fall into that trap as I have done before.

Anyway I am thankful for the light, clean feeling that comes from (mostly) only having useful and pleasing objects in my house. And I resolve to keep asking myself how useful or pleasing something would really be before bringing it into my house. So I can avoid too many more future Hefty bag situations. ;)