Reduce Clutter
The other day, my sweet friend Jean emailed me and said something like, “You are amazing! How do you do everything you do?” (Read that in a deep Southern drawl, because Jean has the cutest combination of Alabama/Mississippi/Houston/Tennessee/Georgia/North Florida in her accent.)
In response, I first laughed long and hard.
And then I wrote something like, “Because I let a lot of stuff go.”
And I do. Letting unimportant things go is a key to balance. But some things can only be “let go” for so long, before they become a bio-hazard need to be addressed.
Today, I’m going to give you a sneak peek into what I’ve let go the last year or so.
It’s my clutter.
If you were to walk into my house today, you would think it looks neat and tidy, mostly. I keep the main living areas clutter-free. I keep a pretty good handle on the paper pile, and I have recently purged each of the kids’ rooms, as well.
But deep within the recesses of the Cooper Home lurks the ugly reality: Sometimes I de-clutter one area and simply move it to another.
Over the next few weeks or months, I’m going to tackle these areas, one at a time.
Why?
Because clutter sucks the life out of me (even when it’s hidden). It depletes me of time and energy I need to do things that really matter. Just knowing it’s there makes me a little nutty. And this, my friends, seriously messes with my balance.
So, here we go. A tour of my house. Well…the cluttered parts, anyway. (Look away, children. You don’t need to know about this first one.)
I’m going to slowly chop away at this a little every day until I’m done. I’ll post pictures as I go. Maybe it will inspire you to do the same. It will be glorious and clarifying.
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Wanna join me? I’m starting a Pinterest Board titled DeClutter 2014. Leave your email address and I can invite you to add your pins too!
I enjoyed that tour. Maybe just have a yard sale in your house. 🙂
What will you give me for a box of VHS tapes?
A ten dollar charge to take them off your hands.
Haha!!! Love it!
Two things:
1) Why didn’t you tell me you were coming over to take pictures of my house? I totally would have left some chocolate cake on the counter for you.
2) I have seriously contemplated doing this exact thing on my blog. But you know, procrasination and all…..
I am trying to talk myself into getting one thing done per day, at least 3 days a week. One drawer, one cubby, one counter, etc. I did some of that today. It gets more challenging on work days, but there really isn’t a reason I can’t eek out 10 minutes. Rome wasn’t built (or taken down and uncluttered) in a day……
I can’t take the clutter either. I can’t seem to concentrate when I see it. I’ve started focusing on one area at a time. It was hard at first because I could see all the other clutter taunting me. But once I stayed focused on that one area and got it done it felt great. Then I moved on to the next. Of course, I had to build a spreadsheet to keep up with my progress. I’ve been through the whole house now twice. I’ll keep on because it is amazing how much better I feel (not to mention how the house looks) and I keep finding small pockets of clutter I’d forgotten about. BTW, I’ve found a few treasures too.
You’ve got this!
Lori