(photo by Jeff Werner)
I’ve been perusing social media lately and I’ve noticed that many of you are doing the whole de-cluttering your home thing right now. I just have one request–can you come do my house?
I started noticing the tell-tale signs of us needing to do this a couple of weeks ago. Every time I opened a cabinet, something would tumble out that needed to be stuffed back in or when I would open the drawers to get a pair of scissors and it was jammed closed from so much stuff crammed in it. The holidays are so crazy and my house keeping definitely gets put on the back burner but, I noticed that there now “is no room in the inn” for just basic things like spatulas and scotch tape.
How did we get to this point? I have accepted the fact that I’m never going to win any awards for my pristine and spotless home, but I do try my best to keep things organized and this situation is quickly becoming a bit of a crisis. Not only that, but I realized that my temper level was rising each and every time I attempted to tidy up our home. Messiness does that to me. I can’t concentrate or get anything done. It seems like it’s yelling at me and as a result–I’m yelling at everyone else.
The good news is that I think we are at least a month or two away from being shamed on a reality tv show, but the bad news is that it means we have to get tough and get rid of a lot of things. I won’t lie–that’s hard for us.
Now, don’t get any ideas–I’m not going to go all Marie Kondo here–she’s the organizational expert that teaches to get rid of all things that don’t bring you joy. She apparently also preaches that you only need to keep a maximum of 30 books. I am all for getting rid of the excess and freeing up some space, but it will be a very cold day in the hot place before I will ever be convinced I need to only own 30 books. That’s like telling Super Rockstar he only needs 30 music albums. That’s insanity.
The one thing I am in agreement with her about is that clutter is causing me a lot of stress and is making our normally peaceful home seem very chaotic. Just this week–I was trying to come up with some ideas on writing and I couldn’t. My mind was completely blank and I think now it’s because of all the mess around me. To be creative, to feel rested, to even enjoy my family–my home needs to be free of clutter.
I haven’t exactly determined how I will go about getting this accomplished. I’m not feeling the need to back up the dump truck and go for a whole house purge (yet), but I do feel like it’s time to “trim the fat” so to speak. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. As with most overwhelmingly large projects (which this one promises to be), I always enjoy the thinking and planning stage rather than the actual doing stage. So, if you happen to swing by and I still have pathways fashioned out of my shoes, the boys’ legos and Super Rocktar’s undies you can give me a gentle reminder (cow prod jolt) to get it done.
;