Overwhelmed and Trying

I started reading the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider over at Simple Mom.  It's amazing.  Everything she says hit the center of my soul and I knew I wanted to strive to create a life like that for us.  I didn't expect to get emotional reading about simplifying your life and home, but I did!  I think that means I really want it.

But simply wanting does not make it happen.  I've been feeling somewhat overwhelmed for the past few days.  I'm not sure why, but I feel like there's still too much stuff in my house.  We need to purge again but I'll get to that in a minute.  It's difficult because I'm ignoring certain areas of my house because I don't feel like I can do it by myself.  I get overwhelmed fast.  I need my husband to help, but he's not the organizational type and trying to make him do it anyway just stresses him out.  Especially since I'm pretty OCD about how I want things and he doesn't do it right.  And yes, by "right" I mean "the way I want him to do it".  The rooms in question?  The office (just thinking about it makes me twitch) and the laundry room.  Both of these rooms need massive organizational system makeovers, so it's not just that they need to be cleaned.  They need adequate storage for the things that we need in order to be truly simplified and not a gigantic mess.

Back to the purging.  I've gotten rid of SO much stuff, but there still seems to be more.  I need to work on better purging my closet.  I have clothes I never wear and way too many shoes.  But goodness knows I am not great with parting with things unless I really don't like it anymore or it's broken.  But I also hate clutter and things that are not organized.  Which is more important to me?  The stuff or the peace of mind that comes with simplifying my belongings?  I am determined to not be a slave to material items.  Not only is it stupid because they are JUST things, but it goes against my faith.  Even if faith isn't in aspect in this for you, simply keeping in mind what is more important to you (stuff or simplifying) will be a great place to be coming from.

You may have noticed that purging belongings is a big thing for me.  I'll tell you why.  My family never got rid of anything.  Everything was in some way in the "sentimental" or "we might need it" categories.  My mother never learned how to simplify belongings because her mother was a hoarder.  I've had my fair struggle with breaking free of those habits and I still have to work on it, but I am serious about simplifying.  We will not live that way.  There's a commercial that I just hate.  It's for a self-storage facility (luckily for them, I don't remember which one) and it shows a house full to the brim with things.  And I mean full like houses you see on the TV show Hoarders.  The person living in the house looks massively stressed out and then the voiceover says, "Too much stuff?  Get a storage unit!".  My husband knows when that commercial comes on TV because I start screaming "NO!!  NO!!" at the tube.  Storage units are fine and well when you NEED them, but if you're just getting one because you can't fit all your crap in your house and you don't want to get rid of anything?  That's a problem.  Why must we have so much stuff?  Simple answer: We don't have to.

Maybe this post hasn't been particularly helpful for you, but my goal with this blog was to document my frustrations and struggles along with the improvements we make.  Currently, I'm feeling frustrated, but I'll be honest and say that it may just be hormones.  I knew this journey would be full of ups and downs, and starts and stops.  But I know I can do it because others have done it.  And if you want to see a great example of what simplicity should look like, get Organized Simplicity and check out Simple Mom.

I'm Back!

Well, that was an interesting two weeks away from anything simple.  No, no vacation.  In the past two weeks, I went back to school, had oral surgery, spent a week recovering, promptly came down with a cold, and spent another week trying to get better.  Life just happens all at once sometimes.

I'm behind on homework just three weeks into the term and I spent the majority of my morning and the first part of my afternoon writing my first paper in goodness knows how many years.  I did get it done though and the kids only got into two massive fights.  But one of them at school all morning, so maybe I shouldn't be too proud of them.

I am currently ignoring the two weeks worth of housework that needs to be done and indulging myself with some cheesecake that's probably pushing it's shelf life.  Oh well.  Cheesecake is cheesecake.

But the housework does need to be done and I'll show you why.  Now, to be fair, my husband did an OK job keeping up with things while I was recovering from surgery.  It was once we all got sick that things went downhill.

Aahhgg!  My house!!

Yes, there is a bike in my dining room.  And the dog is climbing into the dishwasher.  And there's a random dining room chair with a jar of peanut butter on it sitting in front of the fridge.  You might not be able to see it, but there's also a razor scooter under the dining room table.  And this is just the kitchen.  You do not want to see upstairs.  <shudder>

Ok, so there's a bit of household recovery work to do.  And I really need to work on how to keep up with my house, my kids, and my husband while going back to school.  It's a definite adjustment for me, but I know I can figure out a way.  For now though, I think they'll all just be happy when they have clean underwear again.

Progress!

Today is a day I must remember.  If I ever feel like we're just floating along and not quite getting anywhere fast with our simplifying, I will look back on this day and be encouraged.

You see, I've been purging the house for a while now and have taken a few small trips to Goodwill and have sold some stuff, but there was still a very large pile of items in my garage that we didn't need anymore.  It was stuff from the house and stuff from random boxes stored in the garage.  Stuff we've been carrying around unnecessarily for years.  After having said pile sit in our garage for months with grand plans to sell it on craigslist or ebay or whatever, I made the decision to just get it out of our lives.  How long would it take me to go through, take pictures, decide on prices, post online, and wait for someone to MAYBE buy the items?  Too long and I didn't want to wait.  It was over-complicating our whole simplicity goal.  So without taking a second look to reminisce about what was in those boxes, I loaded them into my car.

When everything was finally loaded, I took a step back and what I saw was inspiring.  The back of my station wagon was literally filled to the roof with stuff.  There wasn't space for one more thing.  And my garage?  There was space....wide open free space in my garage.  It was so freeing.  We didn't need all that stuff.  We thought we needed that stuff, but it's been sitting in the garage for months and we hadn't missed a single item. And now it's gone from our lives and our home (and garage) is a better place because of it.

There is still a small pile of higher ticket items that we will try to sell (baby swing, high chair, etc), but the little space consuming, dust collecting knick-knacks are gone.  One more hour of work this weekend and we will finally be able to park a car in our garage.  Yes, it's THAT clean now!

I love results and I love feeling like we're doing something good for our household.  I am encouraged again.

Whoa!

Do you ever get so excited about something that you feel like you might burst?  I've found two new loves in the past few days that just get my organizing, simplifying mind all a-flutter.

First, a book (and their website).  The Stocked Kitchen.  Um, amazing.  An entire system on what to have in your pantry, freezer, and fridge at all times in order to always have something to cook.  Plus, most of the book is recipes.  Awesome!  I got it from the library yesterday, but WILL be buying this book.  It's just that good.  I don't remember how I heard about it - maybe it was a library suggestion because of other books I'd checked out - but I'm so glad I requested it.

Second, a blog.  IHeart Organizing.  My friend Leigh told me about it a few days ago and I can barely contain myself when I read the blog posts.  I actually squealed with excitement over today's post.  Hello, I'm Carrie and I have a problem.  I get crazy eyes when I read about organizing and I scare my family.

And now, my mind is overflowing with motivation and ideas.  Off I go to organize something!