Josh told me: Don't quit

More that a month that I couldn't write anything about decluttering or zero waste here. I was really not able to write under the pandemic. Bomb shelter has been filled with rice, toilet rolls, noodles, cooking oil, flour, milk, preserved food in cans etc. while the fridge was full of eggs, food for daily consumption. Whose kitchen, store room or bomb shelter isn't under such an atmosphere? You have to feed your family anyways. Every time I went into the kitchen, I just felt headache and defeated.

Not only bomb shelter, my room was stuffed with a brand new printer, paper, stationery these kinds of office equipment, plus my partner has to work from home. The last piece of land has been occupied that I could no longer take out any item for sorting or taking photos for selling or giving out via secondhand platforms! Not to mention your little monster surrounds you 7x24 now and you have one more role to play on top of the caregiver and parent: yes, being a teacher!

Okay! What teacher should have? You got it! teaching materials! You may argue total items at home won't be increased as you only use your existing paper to print your teaching materials. After cutting the paper, or painting, paper waste generated and you have to deal with them all. Either to recycle bin or to be used as a single side paper. Another load of tasks to be handled!

When I aired my frustration in the Facebook group "Becoming Minimalist", people gave me very good suggestions. Not so much about how to declutter but take the opportunity to get closer with family, you can wait a bit for decluttering. True but sad. Until last night...

While I read the book "The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own" by Joshua Becker. He said, "Don't quit!" He shared that he almost gave up his blog after a year of writing, also for about a month (Feb to Mar 2009). When he published a short post encouraging people to donate old prom dresses, a woman he had never met, left a just 3 words comment: "Come back, Josh." She was encouraging him to continue!

And now, he's encouraging me to continue on my decluttering journey! As he said, "decluttering a home is both physically exhausting and emotionally draining." Why not receiving this little encouraging words "Don't quit" as my motto. If you're under similar situation, please DON'T QUIT!