Hello friends! Let’s talk about stuff. Decluttering it, to be exact.

But first…in case you’ve been wondering why I fell of the face of the earth, I ruptured a tendon in my right hand on April 26 and had surgery to repair it on May 1, which just so happens to be the date of my last post. I was in a cast for 5 weeks and the use of my right hand was very limited. I am finally in an orthopedic splint so I am less restricted in my movements.

I won’t lambast you with all the gory details, but I will say that having my right hand casted for such a long time has been frustrating. And on top of that, I had been unable to write or run, both of which are great stress relievers for me. I have started physical therapy to regain the full use of my hand but it is a slow process. On the bright side, I can write and run again.

Luckily, the rupture happened while my mother was visiting. She has been amazing! This whole life and taking care of kids thing would have been so much more difficult without her. I will be eternally grateful for all that she has done, and continues to do.

I’ve been spending more time in my house than I normally would this time of year. You know what that means…I’ve had lots of time to think about the stuff surrounding me and whether we need to own it anymore. And over the past few weeks, I’ve asked myself that question in regards to a few big items in our home, namely a makeup vanity and a clothes dresser.

Decluttering beauty products = No need for a Vanity

The first, which I actually decided to get rid before my injury was an antique vanity that I had purchased about 5 years ago. It was cream with gold accents and it was lovely. It was in our bathroom for about 4 years and I used it to hold all of my beauty products…makeup, nail polish, jewelry, and some other odds and ends.

But over the years, as my possessions were getting minimized, including my makeup, nail polish and jewelry, I no longer needed a designated space for all of that stuff.

It found a new life as a desk in my daughter’s room, as she had been asking for one, and this seemed like a good fit. Except, it wasn’t. Literally. She has a pretty small room and the vanity simple took up too much space.

Back to our bathroom it went. But it remained empty since I no longer needed the storage and the things that had once been in there were taking up residence in a different place.

I put a few feelers out to a few friends to see if they wanted it before I posted it online and one of them did want it for their guest room. We dropped it off a few weeks ago.

Now there’s empty space where it used to be. That makes me happy.

Decluttering clothes = No need for a bulky dresser

The second big item that I decided we no longer needed was a dresser that was in our bedroom.

The me that moved into this house nearly 8 years ago would never have believed that one day I would get rid of my dresser because I no longer had enough clothes to fill it.

When we moved into this house we didn’t even own this dresser. The master bedroom already had a large walk-in closet and a smaller walk-in closet. Being the owner of the most clothes, by a lot, I took the large closet and my husband took the smaller one.

Upon moving all that I could into the closet, I came to the conclusion that we needed a dresser to house the overflow clothes. So I went on the hunt and I found the perfect dresser. Solid wood…check. Black…check. Lots of drawers…check.

I filled that baby to bust and it stayed that way for about 5 years, at which point I discovered minimalism.

One of the first places I started minimizing was my clothes and over the past few years, the dresser continued to get emptier. It eventually became a place for my husband’s record equipment. But then, we redesigned the guest room to be a music room and his record equipment moved down there.

We eventually moved the few odds and ends from the dresser into our closets (socks, underwear, a few accessories) and the dresser was empty. It no longer had a purpose. It wasn’t bringing any value to our lives, so again I offered it to a friend that I thought would like it before listing it. She did and a few weeks ago she came and picked it up.

It now sits in her house to have its next life as a cocktail bar and I can’t wait to have a drink mixed on it. It brings me joy to know that something that served me well is now doing that for a friend!

Initially, the space felt strange. There’s a vent cover on that wall that I had forgotten about that the dresser was hiding. I wasn’t really digging the look of it. My first thought was “what can I put on that wall“. But that was my old way of thinking.

The whole point of getting rid of the dresser was to lessen our possessions. I would not be in line with my values to replace what I had just gotten rid of.

So I vacuumed the area and left it alone. Within a few hours, I was in love with the space. And the strange pride of getting rid of something that society tells us we must have in our bedrooms. My mom even came in the room and asked me where I was going to put my clothes, so I showed her my half-empty closet.

Societal Expectations

As I mentioned in a previous post, when we moved into our home, I went a little nuts trying to fill all of the space. Every house that I had ever been in, including this one (when we walked through before buying it), was filled with stuff...every corner, every wall. And because I had believed this house to be so nicely decorated by the previous owners, I was on a quest to match them, or outdo them.

I went on a mission to find the right thing for every corner and surface.

For a while I struggled with getting rid of both the vanity and the dresser. I think that’s why I kept finding new purposes for them. And even when it became evident that they weren’t needed anymore I did have the thought “that all bedrooms need a dresser”.

Although I did find both pieces to be beautiful, I also like empty space and the feeling that comes with having fewer possessions. And if I’m being completely honest, I take a lot of pride in being able to get rid of things that we “should” own.

So, we no longer have a dresser and unless we move into a different house where we would need one, such as a place with very minimal closet space, we will never own one again.

Have you gotten rid of a piece of furniture that societal norms deems necessary to live comfortably?