Clutter...Here's Your 30 Day Notice

I am a bit of a hoarder. I wish I could come up with a better word than "hoarder" since you probably have visions of my family hunkering down under piles of garbage and boxes and animals and such. I am aiming for uncluttered, slightly minimalistic, and for creating a sanctuary for my family and me.  That is what I need a word for...hmmmmmmm...

Anyhow, before you have visions of A&Es Hoarders, let me just give a few notes:

1. You will not find any animals, living or deceased, within our home. Well, not exactly. We have had four amazing furbabies and they have all passed over Rainbow Bridge.  Technically, they are not "here" but we did have them cremated. If that sounds weird to you, that's okay. We just couldn't imagine burying them in our back yard and then someday moving to another home....what would we do? Right?!

2. You will not find any food or drink where it does not belong. Also, you will not find rodents or mold in my fridge or cabinets.

3.  You CAN walk through my house.

That being said, I am still a bit of a hoarder.  I have a very hard time letting go of things, especially if they can someday be placed in a scrapbook, baby book, journal, etc.

Lots of paper, cards, and pictures.

Lots of craft supplies, paints, and brushes.

Lots of books, CDs, DVDs, and sadly....lots of VHS tapes as well as cassette tapes.

Lots of clothes, scarves, accessories.

Lots and lots and lots of stuff.

This past week, my husband has been off of work during the company's annual shutdown during the Christmas season. And he was ready to "get 'er done" so we came up with a list of this we wanted to accomplish this week.

1. Kon Marie method our clothes. I will tell you that we didn't exactly hold each item and speak to it, blessing it and releasing it if it didn't spark joy, but we did look at each item and ask ourselves if we had worn it lately, did it fit, was it in style, did we even like it, would someone else benefit from it?  From that alone, we cut our closet in half and removed one of dressers.  That dresser immediately was taken to Greenhouse Ministries, a local non profit that offers services for basic human needs including a food bank, clothing, toiletries, household items, prayer, and other assistance. They work with lower income families and those who are attempting to transition from being homeless. They also work together with other local non profits and spread the "wealth" so to speak.

2.  Pack up all of the Christmas decor.  This was the fastest I have ever done it. It was completed on December 26. No lie. We were in beast mode y'all, B E A S T mode.

3.  Declutter our Laundry Room.  This room is our main entrance to our home for our family. It is the last thing we see when we leave the house and the first thing we see when we enter. Unfortunately, it is the worst when it comes to clutter. It has a stackable washer & dryer, a freezer, our two laundry baskets and plenty of cabinet space.  It has taken on a life of its own with a coat rack, shoes, keys, tools, some craft supplies, utility items such as light bulbs and batteries, etc.  We removed everything except for the washer, dryer, freezer and cabinets. Then we grouped items such as wires, batteries, cleaning products, etc.  Then we moved quickly through the groups of either throwing away, donating, or keeping. Such a refreshing sight now!

4. Declutter our Kitchen Cabinets.  I have a decent size kitchen but very little counter and cabinet space.  Anytime I want to grab a coffee mug or a dish, it becomes a struggle of moving this to get to that. I removed more than half of our dishes. We are down to four large plates, four small plates, a set of glass tumblers, several coffee mugs, and a few novelty cups (Football, Disney, etc.). It looks lovely!

5.  Declutter our Home Office/Thirty-One Business Office/Craft Room/Homeschool Classroom. This particular area is my albatross.  This is the place that holds everything for my Thirty-One Business which is a collection of my kit that has evolved over the last seven years, like, greatly evolved...exploded.  Then there are catalogs, receipts, party folders, memorabilia from conferences and incentives earned, leadership retreats, and road trips for meetings. And then you have crafts such as scrapbooking, sewing, paints, pencils, canvases, all things planner related, pictures. It almost looks like a Michael's up in here!  Our homeschool supplies are in here too.  All books, papers, activities, flash cards, manipulatives, how-to books, notebooks, and notes from the homeschool conferences. I mean, it goes on, and on, and on. The door, the dooooooor.  I couldn't fully open the door for the stuff behind it.
 
Calgon?
A&E?
Someone?


When you have a clutter problem you will find yourself in situations of crisis such as an unannounced visitor or a big holiday that requires more stuff to be brought inside from the "garage".  Because you are not disciplined enough (yet) to conquer the piles, you move them to another room. 

And the office is the room that takes care of me in my emergency situations.

So, I am about to let it all hang out, my dirty laundry, my clutter:

 

 

Sigh.  This is such a difficult thing to expose. But, it is actually healing in that I want to be able to say that I did something besides move the piles. I want to say that I purged and donated and organized.  

So, I did it.

I did!

Here is the after picture:

 

Look! You can see the floor!  And, I was able to open the door...all the way, to the wall!

After some serious coffee consumption and pep talking from my hubby, I pulled everything out into the hallway and kitchen, and dining room, and living room. Because that is just how much stuff was crammed in there!

I created groups of items that belonged together. Then, feeling disgusted yet empowered, I started throwing away.  If I lingered on it wondering if I could actually throw it away, then I put it in the donate pile.  If my heart leapt with joy over an item, I kept it.  Once that was done (it took days y'all, days.) I pulled all of my excess Thirty-One products and took pictures of them. I created a list of their names, their regular prices, and what I would sell it for. I am about to list this impressive amount of bags and cubes and purses on my business Facebook page for a Cash & Carry Sale.  The proceeds will go to help bail me out of debt. 

This feels good. Like, really good.

When I walk into my office for my part-time job it feels super awesome. I can work and not feel like I am going to be swallowed by Hobby Lobby.  When I need to grab an item for school, I know exactly where it is (and put it back in its place when finished using it).  When I am getting ready to paint, I grab my supplies and get started instead of becoming sidetracked on a pile of something that needs attention. When my husband asks where the receipt for the Nerf Gun is that needs to be exchanged, I know right where to look, in the filing cabinet, third drawer, in the file for 2016 December receipts.

And here's the funny thing, now that it has been done...I look at the "after" picture and say to myself, "Self, you can do better! You can get rid of more!" Who am I? Who did what with the old me? Wow!

Before I tackle the "after" projects, I still have a list of things to rework. But that's another blog post for another time!

• Declutter our kitchen pantry
• Declutter our daughter's room
• Declutter the living room

{Purse}onally Yours,