Reality Check

So I came to the realization in the last 24 hours that I could be moving in six days, six months or sometime in the next six years and the concept frightened me beyond words.  How much stuff can a family that grew collect in the short space of 10 yrs... and how much of it do I want to move??

Understand my house is not like those houses on TV - it's not Hoarders here, though sometimes I cast an eye around and feel like it could be.  I lack storage more than anything.  And I lack the discipline to put things back!

You see, I have lived in this house for the last 10 1/2 years. My oldest was four months old when we moved in. Three additional children later, all-girls I might add, and you have a recipe for disaster. Now throw in the fact that I'm a reforming packrat (that is a packrat that is trying to mend her ways!), and you begin to realize the magnitude of my problem.  I am a knitter, crochet'er and sewer, which compounds the clutter.  Yes, I have thrown stuff away in the last 10 years, and donated yarn, usually when my clutter got under my skin, but I homeschool too, and as homeschoolers tend to do, we have amassed a collection books - both school and general fiction, so the problems continue to grow!  As a packrat thinks, I often say - oh well I can use that again for the next child ... not fully comprehending that it is only useful if I can find it again when said child is old enough - so it needs a place to live in the mean time.

For years, I have been trying to follow Fly-lady, and when I didn't see results with that, because I lacked the follow through and ability to follow routines, I would wander off to organizedhome.com or Cindy's Porch - which is now Cannywomen.com, so I have been doing stuff, just never with my full heart and intentions of getting somewhere, UNTIL NOW!

My clutter is getting to me!  It's making me REALLY grumpy.  I spent the last couple weeks stepping over stuff to get through the door into my laundry room, trying not to kill myself with the full clean laundry baskets on the way out again!

It's official though - I have decided that I need to finally bite the bullet and get myself out of this mess.  There is nothing I love more than a clean surface and a clean area to sit down comfortably and just enjoy my surroundings.

I haven't posted on this blog regularly in recent months, I'm hoping to be better about that, I will be focusing on my efforts of decluttering, cleaning and simplifying our mess.  And the occasional knit/crochet/sew project or two!  Emotions are sure to flare as I pack away my stuff and get rid of things that I just don't need anymore.

So let's begin!!  

This passed Friday, I received some Method soaps and detergents from Soap.com - we've been using them for ages, anyway, after school lessons today - I re-purposed the box - I used it to pick up all the mess of STUFF on the floor in the laundry room.  I gave the floor a good vacuum and scrub.  Got rid of the shoes the girls have outgrown or don't wear!  Got rid of the empty bottles of detergents from the cupboards that I was going to refill with homemade detergents.  In the end I got rid of a bag full of trash - no, none of it was reusable!  Though what could be recycled was and a couple of shoes went  into the Goodwill Bag.

I spent 2 hours in the laundry room, digging out stuff that needed gotten rid of and freed up some storage space for curriculum materials that I'm not currently using but know I will use for sure for the youngest!  I also managed to clean up some other stuff that was lying around and tossed on a couple loads of laundry.  

I'm throwing in the stuff I do on a regular basis as well, just because I'm working on routines!  Laundry happens M, T, Th, F (and sometimes Sat,)  my oldest does her own laundry now (W) because she refuses to put it away if I do it, so I made her responsible for her own, mess!  

Tomorrow's goal is to empty my new "SOAP box" and deal with that clutter so that I can use it again for the next round of stuff that needs done.  I'm hoping to declutter my home, one soap box at a time - 15-30 minutes a day (a la Fly-lady!!)   :)  I figure I can declutter for 15-30 minutes and then re-load my box for the next day's 15-30 minutes worth of stuff to declutter.

New Habit:  So as of now, the tops of the dryer and washer need to be tidied each night after the last load is done! :)  This needs to be how it looks each night!  (21 days to a new habit!)