A few days ago, I was asked on Instagram how I kept our home uncluttered. The short answer is that I go through our things every month. I know that there is often a lot of emotions attached to the way we don’t let go things and that’s ok.
Yoga teaches you that if there is one posture you don’t want to do, that’s exactly the one you should be doing right now. I think it’s a bit the same with decluttering our personal space…the things we don’t want to let go are the things we need to let go so we can move on with our lives and address the emotions that tie us down.
One thing I do now (and it took me a while of getting used to the idea) is letting go of Mila‘s baby & toddler clothes because at the end of the day, she is growing up, she is becoming her own, beautiful person with a mind of her own, her own tastes (which means she will no longer wear the gorgeous Liberty tops her mum loves so much) and she won’t really care if I keep her baby clothes for 20 years. So letting go of her clothes I loved so much is a way of embracing that my kid is growing up and I need to go with the flow with her rather than looking back.
As such, I will be selling some of her things tomorrow on Instagram from 11am. All proceeds go into her bank account.
Mila wears a furry coat from Zara | Bellerose sweatshirt with sequins from Elias & Grace | Fingers in the Nose skinny jeans from Elias and Grace | furry boots from Gap
It’s interesting what you say about getting rid of much loved baby clothes, it reminded me of what happened when my little girl was small. A very good friend of mine made her little dresses…. She was a good seamstress and it was a labour of love. They were so pretty I couldn’t bear to give them away and my next baby was a boy so I decided instead to re-use the fabrics and made a lovely patchwork quilt. When my friend had her first baby I gave it to her as a present. She used the quilt for many years and it was a fitting way to repay her for her kindness. Could you arrange to get your favourite pieces made up into a quilt and give it to Mila one day?
Hi Yasmine
It’s really a lovely thought. We kind of did this already with her dad’s shirts. Steve had always very nice shirts from Italian designers with beautiful fabrics so my mum did a patchwork quilt for Mila out of her daddy’s shirts so she has a bit of him near her when she goes to bed.
I’ve made a few cushions and hearts out of Liberty fabrics for her bedroom but to be honest I cant bear to cut into a gorgeous Liberty dress or blouse. I’d rather it goes to someone else.
I kept her clothes for a while thinking I will have a second child but that never happened (throwing all my pregnancy books was massively painful…which is silly when you think of it because if I had become pregnant, I could have easily google the info or download an ebook) and kids now have clothes and fabrics that not only work for a nice quilt
Can’t wait, love your style!
your daughter is gorgeous and I love her style!
Love your daughter’s style!
Thanks for sharing about the insight you learned from yoga. I was able to immediately apply it to long-procrastinated-upon projects in the office that are actually of the utmost importance for me to get to clients ASAP. Just reading your words freed something up inside me to say “Okay, I can do this!” It applies at home as well as the items I put off going through are ones related to memories of my years in college, California, and of my childhood with my father who passed away when I was 17. Perhaps it’s time for me to look through those items so I can move on to what is waiting for me in the future!