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.