Have you ever had one of those moments when you wished you
would have done something but it was WAY after the fact? Being A-type you would think that I would
think of everything, but sadly, this is not true.
I wish I would have taken (good) pictures before I started
on my decluttering/minimalistic kick. It
would have been nice to have a record of just how far we (yes, I mean we, well
except for our 4-month old, but even my husband participated for his part) have
come.
My live more with less journey started about 3 years ago
when we downsized from a 3,000 square foot house to a 2,300 square foot house
and finally to our teeny tiny 1,700 square foot fully developed house!!! With 3 kids … seriously!
I have always been an organized person, I hate clutter and I
hate a mess, which is funny since I have 3 kids and my husband is a clutter
bug, a serious clutter bug. As in “but I
might need it” type of clutter bug. Drop
clothes where he takes them off even though he walks past the closet where the
hamper is to get to the bathroom type of clutter bug. Get the idea??? Trying to wrap his head around this less is
more philosophy has definitely been difficult, but he has come around and begun
the process of letting go a little bit at a time in his own way.
The girls have been fantastic at this. They have excelled really. Once I explained to them that the toys and
clothes they no longer used or fit into were going to other kids that aren’t
able to have the same things they do, they filled up a box and a garbage bag
all on their own. Ahhhhhh, girls after
my own heart!
My latest mission of more a minimalist came this spring when
I decided to do a complete home inventory.
Have you ever tried that? It’s a
completely overwhelming task. Room by
room, item by item, every single thing written down, catalogued, and photo
taken. It’s incredible the things you
have that you don’t think about, need or use taking up space that could
otherwise be used.
I started thinking to myself just how ridiculous it was that
we had so much stuff in such a small space.
If we wanted to pack up our lives, maybe put some stuff in storage and
live out of an RV for a year or more why did we need all of this stuff? And that is just what it was – STUFF. Did it really mean anything to us or did we
just feel guilty getting rid of it because we had paid money for it or it was
given to us as a gift? By in large, it
was the guilt that made us hold on to these things. We cleaned around them every week, we dropped
stuff on top of them cause there wasn’t room anywhere else and we moved them
from home to home to home just cause we thought we needed them.
Turns out, we didn’t and our space is becoming much cleaner
and lighter for it.
What do you think?
Any thoughts on your own decluttering?
Have a mission of your own?
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