Day 2 Done

Today, again, was a big success. I started by helping to get the girls' room under control. We went through some of the dresser drawer, throwing out ripped clothing and putting outgrown clothing in a donation box. I sort of felt like it was cheating a bit because it's always easier to get rid of other people's stuff but anything that leaves the house is a good thing. One of my biggest reliefs today came in the form of sending my brother the moccasins that I finished for him last night. Not only is it one less thing taking up space in our home, it's also one less project on my to-do list.

This evening I cleared some more out of the basement. I far surpassed my 25 item goal, probably closer to 50 again. Basically, I filled a big garbage bag with garbage and put a few items in the donation box. I also started a pile of things that we'll have to take to the dump ourselves since there's no way they'll fit in a garbage bag. It will be really nice to get them gone and out of the way. I'll have to make sure that the dump is open first though, it usually is between Christmas and New Years.

Day One is a Success!

I've gotten off to a great start. I got rid of 50 items (well, I lost count at 50). Some of them were groups of things that I just counted as one thing. I suppose if I was smarter I'd try to pace myself but I just want the clutter gone. I feel awesome! I can hardly wait till tomorrow.

Getting Started

I've decided to take my 'getting started' plan from a thread on a website that I like called Mothering Dot Commune (MDC). There's a challenge that was issued in the 'Mindful Home Management" forum that challenged everyone to get rid of 5 things per day until February 1. Also, for every one item brought into the house, 5 had to leave. Here's a link

I like that idea but since my clutter problem is a tad bigger than average and I feel like I'm working with a deadline, I'm challenging myself to get rid of 25 items per day and for each item I bring into the house I'll have to get rid of 25. Each evening I'll come here and post how many items I was able to get rid of.

For the record, I will not be including food in the total. So now all I need to do is get started.

Getting the Garbage Out and Enjoying New Life

Each year our family comes up with something we'd like as a focus for the year. Last year it was reducing screen time. We probably could have done better with that one but we did make improvements.

This year we have decided that our focus will be "Getting the Garbage Out and Enjoying New Life". I tend to be somewhat of a packrat, it's something that I've struggled with my entire life. Fortunately, I married someone who doesn't keep a lot of things. Unfortunately, he is often stressed by the amount of clutter that builds up in our home.

Over the past couple years I've made a few realizations. One major one is that the less stuff I have, the less time it takes for me to take care of it. Basically, if I get rid of half of the things I own, I'll have half the amount of work to do to keep the house in order. Another realization is that I have so much stuff (particularly craft stuff) that I end up not doing anything with it. It's too overwhelming to find what I need for a particular craft so I don't even bother. If I had less stuff, I would probably do more. The other one I want to mention is that the homes I like to visit the most are the ones that aren't cluttered. Why are they not cluttered? Because they don't have a lot of things to make it cluttered.

Having made these realizations I'm now much more mentally prepared to tackle our home and get rid of the things I no longer need/want. I actually started a few months ago by simply not adding anything to our already full house. I cut out pretty much all expenses except for food. I even bought very few (and well thought out) items for Christmas. I figure that the first step for getting rid of the junk is to stop the inflow. Now it's time to increase the outflow.

One of my motivations for getting this done now has to do with the "Enjoying New Life" part of our focus. In a few short months we will be welcoming our fourth child to our family. I want to be able to welcome our new baby into a home where we can all relax. I want to spend my time with my new baby, not with my clutter.

So I know what I want to do and why I want to do it. Now it's just figuring out how to do it, that's the tricky part. Over the next few days I'll be outlining my plan. Part of the reason for starting this blog is simply to keep me accountable. It will also help me to see what seems to be working and what isn't working. So, wish me luck!