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.

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!

Frugality

Part of our journey to simplicity includes our finances.  We're approaching this by learning how to be frugal.  Not really because we NEED to in order to feed our family, but because it's the smart thing to do (hey congress, you might want to take note here).  We do have debt that includes a mortgage, student loans, and credit cards - just like most people.  We want to pay those off and we want to be able to be prepared financially for any emergencies that arise, like a layoff.  We went through that before and having me work full time retail was not fun (although I am grateful that my employer at that time had enough hours available to bump me from very part time to full time right away).  Being frugal is a way to make our financial life simple: No stressing about emergencies, knowing exactly what we can afford, and having funds for our future (retirement, vacations, etc).  We're certainly still learning the ins and outs of frugality and we are learning from our mistakes.  WiseBread has a great article on frugality today and I'd like to share it with you:

WiseBread: A Beginners Guide to Frugal Living

Simplicity at it's Best!

Awesome and I mean *AWESOME* article on Yahoo! today.  This is definitely one to print out and have readily available.

Clean Your House In Less Than An Hour

Home Storage Solutions 101

I'm really throwing myself into this simplicity thing right now.  Maybe it's because I felt like I was lagging a bit during October, or maybe I just really want to get through the holidays and start a new year feeling like life is fantastic.  So, I'm now doing this along with everything else:

It's week two (or week 45, since she's looping the weeks through next year as well) and I feel awesome about my progress.  Seriously, I've spent maybe three hours total and my boys' bedroom is so much more organized.  I didn't even buy any new storage containers (although I plan to buy a new laundry hamper for their closet and a set of three Rubbermaid (or similar) drawers for my six year old's Legos).

Every little bit of new cleaning, organizing, or planning routine that I'm taking part in is saving me countless hours each week.  Yes, it's scheduled cleaning, etc, but I'm not having to spend a full day working on something like I was before.  I can spend an hour or two in the morning or late afternoon while the boys are otherwise engaged, make a big difference in our household, and then go about the rest of my business.  I'm getting in so much more playtime with my kids since I've started all this.  And to me, that makes it all worth it.

Yet Another Good Reason to Simplify!

Is this another great reason to simplify or what?! 

Study shows that materialism kills marriages - Yahoo! News

I don't know about you, but I'd rather have my marriage than a house full of stuff.

Household Management Stress Free Holiday Series

Household Management 101 is having a 13 week series on how to have a stress free holiday season, covering from Halloween through New Years. I'm excited about this one and plan on challenging myself to this as I go about my simplicity plan. You should try it too! Everyone wants stress free holidays, right? I'll keep the series button up on my blog just below the links and websites so you don't have to go digging through posts to find it again.

Grocery Challenge Month #1

We completed our first month of our grocery challenge ($300 for food, $100 for household items).  We went over budget.  It's hard to say if it was due to not watching closely enough, or from needing to buy extra food due to the three parties we hosted (although we were over even without the parties).  Thankfully, we do not host three parties in a normal month (we rarely host any parties at all!), so here's hoping that October shows what a normal month of shopping looks like.  Here's how it all looked:

Grocery/Food: $369.07 (over budget by $69.07 - this does not include party food)
Household items (Pet, toilet paper, shampoo, etc): $142.94 (over budget by $42.94)
Total Cost: $512.01 (w/party: $612.42)
Total Over Budget: $112.01 (w/party, over budget by: $212.42)

Grumble.  Looks like we have some work to do on our shopping habits still.  Looking at these totals is painful and makes me ashamed.  I thought for sure we were doing better, but these totals make it look like a regular month of willy-nilly purchasing.  Hey, that's what this blog is for, right?  Putting my challenges, successes, AND failures out there.

So how to change it?  Let's look at some mistakes from last month.

1.  I didn't plan meals.  I think I was focusing too hard on getting crap out of my house and making sure the place was clean when I should have been also including meal planning and looking at finances.  I should have scheduled a time each week to create a meal plan for the following week.  I went to the grocery store every Wednesday.  Tuesday evening would have been a perfect time to write down any extras that I might need for the following week.  Meal plans have to be a priority.

2. I sent my husband to the store for extra shopping trips too many times.  My dear husband likes to worry about finances and tell me exactly how much money we have to spend on what.  But when it comes to going into a grocery store, he turns into an impulse buyer.  Granted, I was very sick for a few days and needed some items that we didn't have in the house (cold meds, ginger ale, soup, crackers), so it was kind of unavoidable.  I can't control him when he's at the store without me though, and sending him with a list doesn't help much.  I'm not sure how I can fix this other than limiting when he gets to shop alone to when it's absolutely needed (like my sick weekend).  I sent him to the store two extra times when I could have gone.

3.  I didn't keep a price diary.  I didn't see it as necessary because I thought I knew what I would and would not pay for things, but it can't hurt.  If I'm really serious about making this budget work, I need to be willing to employ some crazy shopper techniques (especially since I'm not willing to take 1000 coupons with me each time I go to the store).  Don't know what a price diary is?  Check this out: The Price Diary - How to Save More From Knowing When to Buy.  This also includes knowing what fruit and veggies are in season to avoid over paying for them.  You can get that list here: WiseBread: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, By the Month.

4.  I just used my debit card and ignored the envelope system for the month.  It's hard to really think about how much you're spending when you just swipe a card.  It's hard to know/remember how much you have left in your budget when you're not physically looking at how much cash you have available.  For some reason, I figured since I was keeping track by keeping receipts, I might not need the envelope system.  Obviously, I was wrong.  I've bought some groceries already this month by using the debit card, so whatever is left in the budget is how much cash I will take out next time I'm at the ATM.  I must not ignore the envelopes!

I'll start with these changes and we'll see where that takes us.  It's not easy to admit failure, but I know that looking over where we went wrong will help us in the long run.  What an eye opener this first month has been!  Here's hoping I have better results to show for October.

Financially Fit

Yahoo! Finance has been doing a Financially Fit series and I've really been enjoying the articles.  Some of them don't really apply to me (like how much I might spend on upkeep if I installed a pool), but this one was worth sharing.

Financially Fit: Stretch Your Paycheck

Even if cutting your household costs aren't a huge concern for you, these still provide great ways to simplify and easily trim a few things here and there without sacrificing much.  Besides, couldn't we all use a little extra savings?