#Project333: Not Exactly An Update

Halfway through the Project 333 challenge, I have to admit: this project is not for me.

Not because I'm having a hard time with it, but rather because it's not like my closet could be made a lot simpler. I still pull what I'm wearing for the day from the front of my closet and put clean clothes in at the back. I just don't have enough clothes for this challenge to make a difference in my life. In fact, when the other Susan asked me a week or so ago how the project was going, I had to think for a second to even remember what she was talking about. (The other Susan is also the one who said I covered my blanket in hostility, by the way, and I remembered a bit late that I've already mentioned her around here a lot so there's no reason not to give her credit for her funny lines and general cleverness.)

So it's going pretty well, I guess.

This is on my mind because I recently listened to a few episodes of The Minimalists podcast. Small wardrobe aside, I don't consider myself a minimalist, although I think their underlying principle of only keeping things (including activities, goals, etc.) that add value to your life is a good one. I do think it's hilarious that they frequently get bitter comments about not getting rid of anything important from their lives, which naturally they answer with some variation on, "Of course we kept the things that are important--that's the point!" Some folks, it seems, confuse minimalism with asceticism, which is certainly not the same thing.

Some of Grandma's collection that
I inherited. This particular set is
best enjoyed from a distance, it
turns out. Now I'm wondering what
they get up to when I'm not looking.

I have a medium-sized collection of angel figurines of various types. Angels as a collection item were chosen for me by my grandmother because she wanted to give me gifts appropriate for her churchgoing granddaughter but, not being of a religious turn herself, had no clear idea of how to proceed. After a few false starts with some obviously Catholic gifts that were a bit puzzling to young Protestant Su, she finally settled on angels... and so did everyone else, so that people are still buying me angel gifts for relevant holidays. And my aunties pressed Grandma's own angel figurines on me after she passed, on the grounds that no one else wanted them.

But whether that collection is adding value to my life is hard to quantify. Certainly, anyone who wanted to snaffle them would have a fight on their hands. Most days I don't notice them, but when I do--when I do, they're silent reminders of a time that is gone and a person I can never have back. And there's no putting a value on that. So for now, I'm happy with my non-minimal life.

What do you think about minimalism--interesting idea, ideal goal, not for you? Something else?