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!)

Farewell Dead Weight!

So now that the crafting frenzie of Halloween feels over, I can cruise into the Hallow and sail into that wonderful time of year to which I'm not a huge fan of.  Relatives come and go - though usually the same old suspects (no pun intended!) It has gotten to the point that I do the bare minimum of cleaning before they arrive - that is to say make it look neat, but don't go out of my kind of thing.  But now I have this urge to FALL clean - ya know I have to be different!  Most people Spring Clean, right.... but no, no, dear old me has FALL clean!  Maybe its a birth time of year thing or something.  Since I was born in the fall my time of renew is fall... (well that's my story! LOL!)

So, those of you that know me know that I have knit since I was 6, those of you that don't know me so well, know that I've knit as long as you've known me! LOL!  Without giving away my age, that's more than 30 yrs now.  A girl can collect a whole lotta yarn in that amount of time and a whole lotta ends of projects too!  A girl born of an 'affectionately named' packrat, could store a whole lotta leftover projects in (and out of!) various bins around the house and still never have enough yarn to knit with (we won't go into the fabric stash and toy collections, just yet, but their time is comin!!)  

Well I'm proud to say that I freecycled 3 boxes of only acrylic yarns just this morning!  YAY!  I'm so proud of me!  (<-favourite line from my favourite potty training book!)  Sadly though, it isn't enough the drawer that I'm deputizing to be my yarn stash (yes a SINGLE DRAWER!) is still not as threadbare as I'd like to see it! LOL!  Gads, did I really just say that?  I have at least 1/2 a drawer more of stuff that needs to go but I must first get over the fear of letting it go, that I won't miss it, the project it was intended for won't miss it either because it has been lost in the abyss of my mind! LOL!  It must depart my mortal hands and occupy someone elses!!

The key here is lightening the bulge around the house!  And one tiny project at a time is being accomplished!

Houston? ...We have progress

Wikipedia says "Progress indicates generally forward moving"

Pictures speak 100 words (this what my bonus room looks like.)

A cleaning frenzy has overcome me. Needless to say we have tooooooooooooo much junk. Too many toys, too many computer parts, too many books, too much clothes, too much of everything. I feel the need to reclaim my house from clutter, from disorganization and chaos.

I want to live simply but can't part with the 30+ yrs of books that have accumulated, so I must find a way to organize those! I can part with the "fluff" books that I read - because I'm a "read once get rid of" kind of person - so will list a few on here:

And I've been making good on my new years resolution to buy only books that I will reference time and again! So the Library is the place for me!

My TO DO List

• I will lighten the load of toys (both mine and the kids.)
  
• I will hold on to my sewing machine,my knitting accoutrea and my implements of crochet.
  

Progress is:

• Two small places of sanity in a very BIG mess!
  
• 3 bags of trash are now gone - not the usual kind of trash mind you, more like old computer manuals that dh never got around to tossing - things from computer parts bought in 1995 that have long since departed this house.
  
• Clothes that were too well worn, bits of junk (happy meal toys etc.)
• I have a box of clothes for donation - the next person to call can have them.

That is just some of the books and one of the new shelves. The gray boxes on top are yes, toys, toys and more toys... mostly stuffed critters in good condition. I will go through them and wittle them down to a smaller quantity. The table is our new homeschool work place. It will move when the computers come back upstairs, but for now it is a good place to be so I don't have to worry about clearing it away at the end of the day! I'm pleased, this is one days work and dh is off putting the other bookshelf together as I type.

Slowly I dig out from beneath! LOL! One step, one day at a time, one bag at a time.