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I have kept a journal off and on since high school. I have destroyed many of them because they were written during times I wanted to forget. I have made a giant pile of them over the last two decades and even though I do not want to forget this period of my life, they were mainly a way to write out stresses I was having with work and a new baby and similar issues. Yes, I wrote down some great stuff too. Stuff that I might enjoy going back to read someday, but mostly they are how I dealt with negative things. Things better forgotten. So I have been struggling with a decision on what to do with them for over a year. Do I go through them page-by-page and save those tiny snippets that I may never read again or just outright destroy this pile that I do not have room for and has become a constant source of stress itself?

Yesterday, they were again occupying space in my mind and I decided, that since my life hadn’t been drastically altered by having one stolen in Montreal in 2009 I should just give them a nice sendoff and be done with them. Having them physically sitting here is causing more stress than they helped me deal with over the last 20 years. I told my husband today, “the types of things I wrote in them were things to relieve stress. Things that should have been written on loose-leaf paper and immediately thrown away, not saved in a journal.” So I am saying goodbye to them one way or another this weekend. Not just them but several loose papers my son and I have sitting around.

Here are the before photos and soon I hope to post the after photos.

My family likes camping. When we go camping we have so much fun just being outside with almost none of our belongings that we realize we don’t need so much. For years I have been wishing my life was more free from clutter, like it is when we are camping. So I am going to work toward that goal and document it here. Even if you don’t want your life to be like mine, you may find something interesting or entertaining.

One of the most important things to do is think about what you need on an extended camping trip and then build up from there. For example, what pans do you when you’re on a camping trip? I would say one frying pan and one stock pot. Now is that enough for your day-to-day life or do you need to add more? Can you get by with two plates and two bowls or do you need more for occasional entertaining? Is there a reason to have those special pans or can you make the regular pan do the work of the special pan. As a side note, some libraries now loan out special cake and candy pans so you don’t need to invest money or storage space to own one.

Think about when you are at your happiest and strive to make your life like that as often as you can.