Downsizing Our Lives

It has been two-and-a-half years since I wrote my last blog entry. After that post, I disappeared into my own world in order to realign and re-energize. Though my writing instrument is rusty, tucking was essential, demanding, and has ultimately been freeing.

Juan and I are both artists, and though we were not frivolous, our lifestyle required steady work and steady income which didn't leave much room for our creative minds to breathe. We are both in our 60s, so our priorities have changed drastically; working nonstop is not one of them.

​The first thing to do was purge. We weren't just moving from one home to another. We were downsizing our life from a 2,400 sq ft home and a 1,000 sq ft studio into a 6' x 8' living space with only a small storage unit for overflow. This meant that we had to give up things we normally would have loved to keep, which made our decisions so much harder.

Juan spent a year and a half purging his studio, going through his photographs, negatives, and slides, scanning the gems and discarding or giving away the rest. Sorting through the family photos his mom had taken was a real challenge for him. After much consideration, he kept just enough to enrich his memories then sent the rest to his siblings and their kids. Despite his ruthlessness, he still stashed four large tubs of photos in storage.

​While I purged, unexpected things challenged my ability to let go: locks of hair tucked neatly into separate envelopes from each of my great grandmother's relatives, secured in the writing box she brought on the boat to America; a packet of my father's essays and submission letters. Prior to that discovery I had not known he and I shared the same need to write. Needless to say, both of those treasures were spared!

Burnout left us many piles to sort through when the weather warms up!

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The most tedious and frustrating aspect of purging was dealing with the “stuff” of life that fills up every house – the kind of stuff you wish wasn't in your way when an impending forest fire forces you to evacuate. Nonsensical piles filled up corners and random surfaces, looking as if we had dumped our junk drawers throughout the house. Those piles plagued us like begging dogs and highlighted how cluttered our lives had become. We could only hope the intense emotional and physical energy required to purge reflected the degree of simplicity we would attain on the other side.

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