Minimalist

I try. I envy the shows, where someone comes in and helps with the hard decisions. I have been on this journey for about a year. Kitchen and Livingroom were easy. Don’t go in the laundry room, furnace room or my closet. Clutter makes me cuckoo! It’s like being in a box, no windows, the room shrinks! I did my recroom recently and it feels great. Got rid of stuff, and stuffed stuff in the furnace room. Not really how it’s suppose to work. If I could just get real, not factor in anyones attachments, wow, stuff would be gone!

I have way too many clothes, I would love to do a big swap. Find a bunch of gal pals and put of our extras together and then just swap out our things! I don’t want to just get rid of it. It would be like flushing money, that’s what my mind says anyways.

Some organizers say, put all like things together. Like my VHS tapes, yup I still have them and VCR’s. I don’t watch them. I used to at the trailer in the summer. I just need to do it, already my mind is saying, not the disney ones!

Then the books, Christmas decorations, school supplies, arts and crafts. They are used, but not everyday. I’ve gotten better with books, recycle places will take them, give you a credit and you can get more. That feels good to me.

We all have stuff, and some things we get rid of and then need it or someone we know could of used it. Just aggravating to purge something and go out and buy it again. I try pay it forward, but apparently other people don’t want it either. I used to do yard sales, put it all out early and then drag it all back in, maybe 10% less then when you started. My last two yard sales, I forced myself to donate anything left over.

The key is before you purchase, really decide if it is practical to get it? Try on the clothes and be very skeptical. Wait twenty minutes and then decide. It drives hubby nuts when he shops with me and I pick things up, and then before we leave I have put things back! I don’t want to purchase just because, I want it to be essential. I actually enjoy grocery shopping because it is something I need.

I have made dents in the chaos, it has to be on my own and my own pace. I have called on my kids to judge clothes when I have a pile that I just can’t get through. I have to laugh when I find an old diary and it always starts with, “This is the year I get organized. ” I do have organized chaos in the corners of my house. It is 75% better than it ever was, maybe this is the year I get organized?