Completing the Cycle — The 1000 Things Projects

Completing the cycles: thoughtful about the outflow, slow on the intake...

When I spent time putting some thought into deciding what to do with a thing, I found that the resulting decision was also thoughtful, whatever that decision was. Each of my acts of getting rid of something completed a cycle of thoughtfulness, which I call Thoughtful In, Thoughtful Out (TITO).

TITO led me to start paying attention to the inflow side of things. Why get rid of 1,000 things or more if that many things are also coming into the house at the same time? I found that paying attention slowed down my intake of new things, both consumables & durable consumer items -- call it Mindful Out, Mindful In (MOMI).

I wasn't trying to be minimalist, but I questioned and often delayed every new purchase. These changes in my behavior rarely if ever felt like deprivation to me, and they helped me get closer to my goals while connecting me with my other touchstones: gratitude, curation, treasure, stories, etc....

Thoughtful In, Thoughful Out (TITO):

My 3rd 1000 things project ended with a tool cull (#2921-3005; Freecycled): a lot of work to sort them all, but a great example of TITO. These are the tools I kept; the prior tool mess is long gone...

Mindful Out, Mindful In (MIMO):

When I got rid of my 2000 Accord (#153; donated), which was our second car, I'd assumed that I'd need a second car for those times when my son was home from college, but I found that it was unnecessary; we learned to share the one car I had...