Recently I read the blog post by The Minimalist about the removal of sentimental items from your life.

Thankfully there are few items that I hold with sentimental value … except my art supplies.

In true minimalist style we decided to reduce the size of the home that we lived in so that we had no choice but to clear out our cupboards. I was going well until I got to the “art pile”.

Now this pile seemed to have grown even though I had not bought any items for many years (another reason the items needed to go, I had not used most of the supplies I had for over 3 years, who was I kidding).

I had all these grand plans of “one day picking it up again when I have some spare time”. That spare time is yet to arrive and each year that passes I realise it will not happen.

This was further reinforced by the fact that I had moved onto digital platforms for most of my creativity and going back to paperbased methods I had used before would be a major lifestyle change. That was certainly not going to happen either.

Where did this leave me?

I had to let go of my art pile. That I was ok with. The next question was who can I give this to that will love it like I did and enjoy creating as I had in the past? I thought this would be a relatively easy task … after much searching and emailing the art pile did find a new home. A local school was crying out for supplies and I had my big stash. What a happy ending.

So the school can now create some awesome art projects, I can assist when they need a helping hand and I know that my art pile will assist to create wonderful stories by school kids to share with their families and friends.

My grand plans turned out ok after all!

Have you had grand plans and then they turn into something greater?

What helped the plans become a reality?

Was the change of plans a better story than you could have imagined because you worked with others?

Would you do it all again?

What will you do differently in the future?