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!