Grow Vertically

One of my favorite Youtubers shared this (video below). While I do think there are *times* to try new things and dabble, I think I’ve felt relieved at axing the idea of trying to commit to everything all the time in my areas of interest! This is some great advice.

I noticed something similar when I had boxed up all the books in the house. I still read, and possibly read more, than when I had so many books out stacked everywhere. I used kindle and librivox and the public library and occasionally bought a new book physically and actually read it- because it was the only one there! I may have actually read more books than usual while I wasn’t overwhelmed with them visually.

Now that we are moved in to our new place and figuring out what new shelves and bookcases to install, I do plan on welcoming back my favorite books from storage (especially drawing and gardening manuals and reference books!) but I’m committed to keeping them pared down and not overwhelming the book cases triple deep! Instead if I have more volumes than look pleasant on the shelves, I will rotate from storage when I do school book change overs for the year, and I will do a better job releasing books back to the wilds of the used book trade as well as letting fewer in and using digital resources and borrowing more like I did while everything was boxed and in storage.

As a side note, currently I’m reading through some historical fiction with the intention of curating books for a homeschool literature program I hope to create over time! I read or am in the middle of reading
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman
The Eagle by Rosemary Sutcliff
The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell

In closing I’d love to share my favorite quote (slightly abbreviated) from the video I’m featuring, starting at about 18:30

If you have acquired a lot of stuff for like, hobbies, or crafts, or those types of things— "How do I go about decluttering that?" [...] What's been really helpful for me is just to be really realistic about the season I'm in. And what I realize is that I always thought that "oh, well, when the kids are a little bit older, or when this happens, then I'll have time, then I'll do it more," and I realized that that never actually was happening. I was never getting to a point where I had more time to sew, or if I did [...] I actually was interested in learning new things or since we moved out here, you know being outside, growing flowers, working in the garden [...] 

It's okay to look at the past and the stuff we've acquired as a learning experience. None of us could have known for sure if it would be a life long passion or not. I mean there's just a lot of trial and error when it comes to that kind of stuff. Or we used to do it with a group of people but now that group doesn't exist anymore, right? So there's a lot of variables and so I just want to give you permission to let that stuff go [...] free yourself up because then it's so cool to feel like you have the freedom and the space and the bandwidth and the time to really pick one thing and to really thoroughly enjoy it. [...] 

Because isn't it amazing how we can take something we really love and enjoy, but as soon as we start to acquire too much stuff we spend more time taking care of the stuff that goes with it and organizing it and all of that and feeling bad that we're not using it than actually using the stuff and enjoying the hobby. So that's been kind of helpful to be like "you know what? It's a learning experience. Seasons change. Just because I enjoyed something in the past, doesn't mean that I have to still enjoy it." Like our tastes can change and that's totally fine. But there's so much freedom in just being willing to let that stuff go, and just keeping and managing the stuff that we're using here, right now, today.