Discardia

On my calendar, this week is the quarterly holiday Discardia. To put it succinctly, it’s about taking time to remove physical, mental and emotional clutter from our lives in order to be more awesome. It’s nice to have a name and methods to apply to something we should all be doing more often.

With its three key principles and numerous practical tips, Discardia—a new holiday—helps you carve away the nonsense of physical objects, habits, or emotional baggage, and uncover what brings you joy.

I’ve been reading the Discardia ebook and have enjoyed the many simple and practical approaches to simplifying spaces. The strength of the book is its accessibility and gentleness; it allows even reluctant discardians to make meaningful changes to their lives.

Letting go and lightening our loads create positive motion; when combined with a light touch on the rudder—a little leaning of the boat—we have the ability to turn our lives in better directions.
The tips in the book, plus the supportive community of Discardia fans (whom, for convenience, I’ll refer to as Discardians) found in multiple online locations, will help you put your energy where it counts: in making your dreams real and in living a less stressful life full of awesomeness.
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So what, exactly, is Discardia?
It’s a new holiday—invented by the author in 2002—with deep roots touching unconsumption, the slow movement, downshifting, and voluntary simplicity. Unlike many holidays, it doesn’t involve obligations or expense or overblown expectations of specialness. It does not require us to interact with people whom we do not wish to interact with. In fact, it doesn’t require us to do anything. Discardia is celebrated by letting go of what doesn’t add value to your life—whether physical object, habit, or emotional baggage—and replacing it with what makes your world truer to your essential self. The core concept is this: If we continually discard what doesn’t help us, we’ll be left with more of what does—more space, energy, and time to make our lives even better.

I recommend reading the Discardia blog for more tips on decluttering and the full “Introduction to Discardia” for a good overview of what the book offers.