Starting at the beginning; after our adventure in the brewing business ended in 2014 we took notice of all the stuff we had accumulated in the 10 years since moving into our current house. We then re-evaluated our priorities and it was clear that we wanted/needed more time and money to travel and spend with family. Since it's a lot easier to spend less than to make more money while holding on to the finite amount of time left, we decided to downsize the size and cost of our housing.
The first step of preparing for a 2/3 reduction in square footage is a 2/3 reduction in stuff. After reading Richard Koch's book Living the 80/20 way(which is Pareto's Principle applied to one's life), it became clearer the steps on the path.
1. Identify the 20% of stuff, say clothes, that we use 80% of the time and set aside to keep.
2. Evaluate the remaining 80% that gets used only 20% of the time.
3. Wash, Rinse and Repeat
We've found that it's a gradual process that has to be repeated over and over, each time you will eliminate a little bit more. It's not realistic to complete this in a day or days, as seen on TV, but weeks if not months. After all it took in most cases years to accumulate it all.
"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful." John Maeda
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