00028: The Midpoint of the 30-Day Minimalism Game!

Day 15, fifteen items

I cannot believe I made it half way through the 30-day minimalism game (challenge!) It has not been easy, mainly because I have to move things from one end of my home office to the other in order to clean, declutter, and distribute stuff into boxes.

One of the most interesting things about this project is not the “getting rid of” stuff but asking myself “where should this item go?” The decluttering isn’t just removing, but actually giving thought about the items I am removing and making sure they go on the correct ‘give away box.’ Needless to say, there are boxes half full with stuff as well as bags with stuff that I know will go to “this person” and “that person.”

An extra benefit about physically decluttering a room/home? The process is helping me to also declutter my mind. Lots of memories rush in, memories I must deal with and make peace with, not to mention feelings, lots and lots of feelings. So, yes, the process of cleaning my home spaces is also pushing me to declutter my mind.

About 12 years ago, while stretching, I over extended the plantar on my right foot. I mean, I actually felt it “pull apart,” the way one tears apart a something, like the way we tear away a small piece of ‘carne asada’ with our fingers. That day I learned the meaning of plantar fasciitis. The stabbing pain on my foot was so intense that I was given steroid injections, then every night for about two months or so, I wore a stretching splint and sleep support brace, which forced my foot to be bended while sleeping. In the process of remedying the plantar, I was also given adjustable inserts for my shoes. Every month I would get two pairs of inserts delivered home, so I accumulated many pairs, and I kept them in a box. All this happened in the east coast. Then I moved back to California.

With a new job and a new doctor, I was given a different type of inserts for my shoes, far better and more efficient.One pair per year instead of two pairs per month. The plantar fasciitis is almost none existence. (Although it never really goes away). But I am able to walk (not run) and going down heel still presents problems.

As I clean my home office, I found “the box of inserts” in the closet (among many other boxes). I had forgotten all about it. There are more than fifteen pairs of inserts. And because the inserts are mostly new (and many were never even opened), and they are adjustable, I’ve donated the box full of inserts to someone who needs them. As they say, someone’s trash and someone else’s treasure. #carlosmanuelspeaksthetruth