How does one go from a house where they raised and homeschooled three children to a home that might be better suited to just the two of you? I’ve been thinking about that a lot these past few days. The truth is, we have way too much STUFF. It accumulates, you know? Like spider webs weave when you’re not looking, clutter happens when you’re busy living life. While we are still busy living life, clutter has taken over the basement, the bedrooms, the closets, the drawers. Sometimes I just look at it all and want to close the door or closet again. Maybe some other day. Do you find clutter overwhelming?
And when did it become clutter? All of those really appreciated birthday and Christmas gifts suddenly turn into one-more-thing-to-dust. Knick knacks sit in pretty curio cabinets but nobody ever really looks at them. Some gifts are too pretty to use, so they sit in a drawer never to be touched. USE the scented soap! ENJOY the pretty quilt or doily or china tea cup. Trust me, our kids will not care if those things get passed down to them.
Speaking of kids…they don’t take it all with them when they move out. Have you noticed that? To our boys’ credit, they’ve gone through most of their things. What they left behind is just waiting to be donated or put up on eBay. The hard part is motivating ourselves to put it in the van and drive it off to the donation center or take the pictures and write the descriptions to try to sell them.
This takes DETERMINATION.
So I’ve created a few new Pinterest pages about De-cluttering and organizing and ideas for new office spaces or making things fit in tighter spaces. (You can check them out on my Pinterest page by clicking the P icon at the top of the page or these highlighted links.) And by the way, if you have suggestions, I would love to see pictures of them! (This is a picture of my current cubby-hole office.) Cozy, yes?
Until we can move, which I do hope we can do in the next few years, I hope to turn one of the bedrooms into a second office. I do enjoy my cubby hole office off the family room in what used to be a wet bar. But Randy thinks it would be good for me to have choices and suggested another one upstairs. What a fun idea! I can finally frame my book covers, repaint the walls, and fashion a room to my liking – one with a little wiggle room. (As you can see, this office is not given to much wiggling. Tiger finds this frustrating.)
How about you? Are you in the mood to downsize? To spring clean? To just get rid of STUFF you really don’t use anymore?
We have two philosophies in this house that came from our parents or grandparents, I think.
1. – “If you haven’t used it in a year, give it to someone who will because you probably will never need it or miss it.”
2. – “Keep it because you never know when you might need it for some future project.”
Guess which one I favor? 🙂
But…if you’re going to keep it, at least let’s put it where we’ll find it when we need it.
Which type are you? One…or two?
Happy cleaning~Personal, Author’s MusingsApril 30, 2014
