Thanks to a facebook friend, I discovered a simplifying movement from White House Black Shutters. It's called 40 Bags in 40 Days. You're basically giving up your clutter for lent. All you have to do is fill a bag a day for 40 days. Garbage or donation....it doesn't matter. It can be a big garbage bag or a small grocery bag. Just fill a bag and get it out of your house!
I'm doing to do it. You should too! And if you're worried about finding enough stuff to get rid of for 40 days, trust me. I'll bet anything you'll be shocked at how much unused, unneeded junk is just sitting in your home.
Let's start today! Join me?
Showing posts with label purging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purging. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, January 6, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Garage
Last night my husband mentioned that he really needs to start parking in the garage. It's getting colder and we've had to scrape the windshield the past few mornings. It takes between 10 and 15 minutes to get the car warm enough for all the windows to be clear. And he feels that all this cuts into his work day. (Of course, if he would wake up on time like a nearly 30 year old man should, this might not be such a big issue....) But I agreed with him. He does need to be able to park in the garage so the frost and ice isn't a problem for getting going in the morning.
But this meant something would have to happen that I'd been avoiding: We must clean the garage. <insert horror movie scream here>
Since the rain had yet to start this afternoon, I took the kids outside and had them ride bikes around the driveway while I attempted to work on the garage. I think I mostly just shuffled stuff around. It's the thought that counts, right?
Obviously, in terms of organizing and simplifying, the garage is the biggest problem area. It's better than it was at the beginning of the summer in terms of how much stuff is in there, but due to going through boxes and moving stuff around, it LOOKS worse. And all the sawdust that covers every inch of the garage from when my husband made bunk beds for the boys isn't helping.
I did purchase a bunch of storage bins so I could move holiday decorations from various cardboard boxes. I'm all for keeping the spiders out as much as possible, plus if I ever flood the garage again through our central air system (long story), our items will be better protected in the plastic containers than they would be in cardboard. I didn't know how much would really fit into them, but I was able to fit all Halloween decorations into one medium sized bin and all Christmas decorations into one large bin. All in all, I did away with five big cardboard boxes (clearing two whole shelves) just from using those two bins. Unbelievable! I was so excited and, I'll admit it, just a tad proud of myself for saving so much garage space. I foresee my storage bin/system addiction getting worse....
There's still a TON to do, but after clearing away five boxes and finally taking some pictures of larger items that we've been wanting to sell, I felt like I made some progress today. And the more progress I make in the garage, the more room it gives me to toss out more stuff from the house. Hmm? The car? Better stock up on ice scrapers, honey.
But this meant something would have to happen that I'd been avoiding: We must clean the garage. <insert horror movie scream here>
Since the rain had yet to start this afternoon, I took the kids outside and had them ride bikes around the driveway while I attempted to work on the garage. I think I mostly just shuffled stuff around. It's the thought that counts, right?
Obviously, in terms of organizing and simplifying, the garage is the biggest problem area. It's better than it was at the beginning of the summer in terms of how much stuff is in there, but due to going through boxes and moving stuff around, it LOOKS worse. And all the sawdust that covers every inch of the garage from when my husband made bunk beds for the boys isn't helping.
I did purchase a bunch of storage bins so I could move holiday decorations from various cardboard boxes. I'm all for keeping the spiders out as much as possible, plus if I ever flood the garage again through our central air system (long story), our items will be better protected in the plastic containers than they would be in cardboard. I didn't know how much would really fit into them, but I was able to fit all Halloween decorations into one medium sized bin and all Christmas decorations into one large bin. All in all, I did away with five big cardboard boxes (clearing two whole shelves) just from using those two bins. Unbelievable! I was so excited and, I'll admit it, just a tad proud of myself for saving so much garage space. I foresee my storage bin/system addiction getting worse....
There's still a TON to do, but after clearing away five boxes and finally taking some pictures of larger items that we've been wanting to sell, I felt like I made some progress today. And the more progress I make in the garage, the more room it gives me to toss out more stuff from the house. Hmm? The car? Better stock up on ice scrapers, honey.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
So Far
We've slowly been tackling closets and the garage to purge our belongings. Here's the update on how much stuff we had, but don't need:
Five overflowing boxes have been dropped off at Goodwill. These boxes included toys, clothes, dishes, knick knacks, and books. These were things that we didn't feel we could get much cash for if we tried selling them or had already tried selling and they didn't go.
Sitting in the garage to be sold:
One toddler ride-along truck
One high chair
One infant swing
One infant bouncer (which actually will be given to the church nursery)
One diaper pail
One infant play mat
One crib set with bumper and comforter
And count 'em, EIGHT boxes of clothes, toys, books, and various odds and ends. Every box is overflowing.
There are still some areas to be gone through, so we're not done yet. Getting rid of this stuff feels so good.
Five overflowing boxes have been dropped off at Goodwill. These boxes included toys, clothes, dishes, knick knacks, and books. These were things that we didn't feel we could get much cash for if we tried selling them or had already tried selling and they didn't go.
Sitting in the garage to be sold:
One toddler ride-along truck
One high chair
One infant swing
One infant bouncer (which actually will be given to the church nursery)
One diaper pail
One infant play mat
One crib set with bumper and comforter
And count 'em, EIGHT boxes of clothes, toys, books, and various odds and ends. Every box is overflowing.
There are still some areas to be gone through, so we're not done yet. Getting rid of this stuff feels so good.
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