I’m soooo stinkin’ excited about this!
Last weekend after cleaning out my in-laws home (as well as while listening to a Present Over Perfect on Audible . . . ) I was completely inspired to really do a serious clean out in our home.
I had no time for it, no energy for it, and truly no business tackling it during such a crazy busy season.
(Um……. I have an 18 year old heading to college in 10 days, a fifteen year old heading back to high school next week and an eleven year old beginning middle school . . . and I had just gotten home from a 17 day road trip.
Clearly I’d lost my mind.)
But I know all too well that once I get the itch to start de-cluttering nothing else will do, so I went ahead, let my work (and laundry!) pile up all around me, and decided to just go.
I (think?!) I’m so glad I did.
I spent about 1-2 hours each day (so much more time than I had!) and cleared out the dining room, the kitchen, the pantry (my girls helped with that!), the basement kitchenette, the basement storage area, entertainment center and guest bedroom closet . . .
. . . and goodness it feels so good.
THIS MORNING . . . YIKES! For the record ~ my crazy girls do gymnastics on those pitiful mattresses ALL WINTER LONG. I made the mistake of letting them do that the first year we moved to Ohio, and they pull them out and play on them ALL the time. I did let go of the queen set today but am keeping the twin mattress ~ and am going to try to find some regular mats for them to do gym on from now on because it would be worth the expense (I’m afraid they’ll hurt them selves on those after seeing how pitiful they were today!)
DURING
After
I still need to finish up the bedrooms and our linen closet, but realized my sanity (well, my husband’s sanity), probably couldn’t take it if I didn’t take a week bit of a break for a few days first. 🙂
Here was my 2-step rules to tackle the STUFF each day:
- Choose 100 items each day for 5 days to get rid of in my home (these could be thrown away, donated, or given to a friend
- Keep only things in my kitchen that were either glass, metal, white or pale blue ~ all other colors are gone (except for water bottles and plastic cups, because my family would kick me out if I got rid of those too!)
As penny pinchers, de-cluttering is hard.
Being frugal by nature, I constantly think that I might be able to use whatever that thing is . . . an old apron that’s covered in stains, an extra rubbermaid container that doesn’t have a lid, that Dollar Tree container that doesn’t hold anything any more.
I struggle with letting go of things, because I worry that I may not have enough money in the future to replace it if I need it one day.
And there’s complete value in re-purposing our stuff when we can.
But.
Just because something has value, doesn’t make it valuable to me right now.
So I let (a LOT) of stuff go.
I got rid of pillows I’ve decorated with in the past but really no longer love.
I donated dishes that no longer matched my style.
I passed on chairs that I’ve picked up at Goodwill for the last few years but no longer use.
WOO. HOO. 🙂 🙂 🙂
(Sidenote: I struggled with whether or not to donate or sell these things especially if I thought I could sell them if they had a little value, and then a sweet PPP reader mentioned that these things might be a treasure to the person who came upon them at the thrift store, so I decided some lucky person out there might just consider my donation a little gift, and that just made my day.)
Having the abundance of space in a few cabinets is glorious.
Finding a few things my son can use at college that we won’t have to purchase is just lovely. (I found storage bins, a nightstand, a printer and several stacking baskets plus a huge stockpile of TP, Clorox Wipes and paper towels. SUCCESS!)
It.
feels.
so.
good.
Can I encourage you to consider purging a wee bit too?
If you struggle like I think most of us do with too much stuff, take an hour each day this week and tackle your home.
Throw out things that no one can use at all.
Share with someone else anything that no longer hold value to you (even . . . especially? if they might hold more value for someone else.
And get rid of the clutter that’s overwhelming you today too.
(Here’s a peek at what I’ve cleared out this week all in one place!)
If you’re new to the challenge learn more about what I’m up to over HERE, and if you’re like me and could use a little less clutter in your life, I encourage you to take on the challenge with me. It’s such a simple way to feel better about space (and really, just about everything), and I am so glad I decided to get started as soon as I got a little motivation to get to work. Leave a comment and let me know if you’re joining me ~ I love hearing from you!
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