Throwing It Out! A Very Long Post on Decluttering

I have been, for lack of a better phrase, throwing out all our stuff.  (This is going to make my husband first cringe, then panic.)  About a month ago I realized that I was stressed out all. the. time.  And that I was also picking up stuff all. the. time.  That my junk drawer had earned its name, I couldn't find things, and piles were piling up in every room.

Now, I'm a very tidy girl, thanks to my mother's brilliance/cruel & unusual discipline when I was 12 (That's a great story for another day, by the way.), so clutter and random things make me twitch.  I think I've mentioned previously that I have three (four, bless his heart) people working against me at any given moment, and we homeschool, which means only 1/5 of us leaves the house on a regular basis.  All that combined to make for a house packed to the gills with stuff.

After feeling melancholy and stressed out and overwhelmed for about two weeks, I decided to control what I could, so I cleaned out the "junk" drawers.  Chris questioned my timing--workmen were in the same room repairing a hole in the ceiling, and sheetrock stuff was everywhere.  But I explained that all the messes were making me nuts, so I needed to tidy one thing I could control.  It took over an hour, but I was left with two drawers that are perfectly organized and hold all the things we need:  flashlights, Gorilla glue, iPod earphones, address book, etc.  And then I did what I should've done a long time ago:  I held a family conference, explained that nobody under 35 is allowed to even touch the counter/cabinet space, and that permission had to be granted before borrowing anything from the drawers.  I did it very nicely, but very firmly.  And a month later, I still have three working flashlights, can find my scissors and glue in a second, and know where to find all the other little random things I never could seem to locate before.

And you know what?  That small little space of order looked and felt so good that I moved on to my bathroom closet.  And then my bedroom closet.  And nightstand.  Dresser.  Pretty soon, I'd taken an entire vanload of unused clothing, belts, shoes, and just stuff to Goodwill, and I started feeling a little less stressed.

I took a two-week break to visit with my sister, but as soon as she left, I hit it hard!  Our dining room has a built-in buffet with 6 large cabinets--a spacious dream, but they had never been cleaned out or organized since we moved in, in 2008.  It took another 3 hours and a trip to Goodwill, but afterward they were nearly empty, with appropriate things in them (unlike the tire cleaner and power drill that had been in there).   I walked around opening them all day long, just to admire my work.  (I even made Caiden look in them, for affirmation of their lack of stuff!)

On a roll, and fueled by adrenaline, I attacked the family room cabinets--another set of six large cabinets completely wrecked by DVDs, Wii games, unorganized family albums, Christmas decor, and other weird things.  Another three hours.  Another van load.  And then, just because I was on a roll, I started removing things from the family room itself--books, decor I don't love, and whatever struck me as not necessary.

Next day?  Schoolroom closet--whoa.  Enough said right there.  And guest house cabinets.  Another set of six, and these were the most random of all because we were just tossing everything that didn't go somewhere else in them.  Our house generally appears clean and tidy, but that's because we have mass quantities of storage--two attics, even.  I've realized that much storage space is dangerous!  But open a set of cabinets, and you'd see how much too much stuff we had.  A lot of the stuff in the guest house was old decor or gifts I didn't use anymore but felt bad getting rid of.  I parted with them this time!

So today, I wandered around our house, looking inside cabinets, pulling a few more books (like, 40) off various shelves, and admiring how much tidier our house has stayed all week long.  I headed up to my sewing room, really thinking it would take me five minutes, because I really didn't have anything to get rid of.  Four hours later, the kids were scrunched up in the back of the van, and we made our third trip to Goodwill.  The entire van was taken up with stuff, and that didn't even count the three huge bags of fabric I'm giving to a friend!  I have to admit I was ashamed at how much I'd accumulated in the name of crafting--three garbage bags went in the trash, and I think what went in the van to donate could've filled a small sewing shop.  I hated seeing how much money we'd spent in the last four years that was wasted--not because I gave the things away, but because I was never going to use them!  It was a serious wake-up call.  Anyway, the lady at Goodwill tried to tell me to come back later because their truck was full, but I think she saw how desperate I was to be rid of the stuff inside my crammed car, and she relented.  Two of those huge carts later, and we drove home happy.  I treated myself to a peppermint mocha from Starbucks--still sweaty and exhausted from a million trips up and down the stairs with all the stuff.  My sewing room looks radically different--so clean and calm, and while I still have all the supplies I need, and a small bookcase of fabric I'll actually use, there's nothing in there that could be called clutter.  It makes me want to sew, it's so nice!

Overall, my house doesn't really look all that different.  (Except for my sewing room.)  I didn't take down any of the decor or get rid of any furniture.  Everything that went--three packed minivan loads--was inside cabinets or drawers, or sitting in baskets.  It was all hidden to the eye, but I knew it was there, and I was constantly putting it away after somebody else had dragged it out.  I read recently that we'd have 40% less cleaning to do if we could part with some of our stuff.  I believe it!  My house might look basically the same, but it feels radically different.  At our 5 o'clock pickup each night, it has taken less than 5 minutes to have the house completely picked up.  That is a huge improvement!  I feel so lightened, as if I lost weight, that Bridget keeps laughing at me on the phone--she says I'm giddy, and I think I am!  It feels so good not to be burdened with constantly picking up stuff, or opening a closet and feeling like the chaos inside is making me crazy.  I don't feel behind anymore, and the overwhelming feeling is gone.

Now here's the challenge:  not to replace the stuff.  Not to relax and allow unneeded stuff to creep back in.  I've already gone through the kids' clothes and toys, but pretty soon I'll go through them all again, keeping in mind that with Christmas coming soon, I need to get rid of as much as they'll likely bring in. Toys they don't play with or have outgrown, clothes not needed to be handed down, and excess amounts of particular toys, like Legos and baby dolls.  It doesn't hurt them to live with less, and the extra time I have to spend with them, that I was formerly spending on picking up, is more valuable to them anyway.

This is a seriously long post, and I wouldn't even read it if I hadn't written it, but I'm leaving it here to remind myself that too much stuff is a burden, and that less really is more!  For good reading on simplifying, organizing, or living with less, here are a few sites I've just discovered:
Small Notebook
Steady Mom (follow her links to her homeschooling site for simplifying homeschool organization)
Simple Mom
And my mom is joining in on the decluttering/simplifying, too, and you can find her here.

And, appropriate since it's November, I'm feeling very thankful for Goodwill this month.  I'm glad our extra stuff can be used to bless others--but I'm hoping that this time next year, I don't have quite as much stuff to give!