I have always had a problem keeping a neat and tidy house. The clutter gets to me. It makes me feel anxious and out of control. I try to not buy things, decorations and the like, so that I don’t have things out looking cluttered. I do have a wonderful, big family though and they like to shower us with lovely gifts. I do love the decorations we’ve received but add decorations to every day clutter and toys and it really starts getting out of control quickly.
So, I am trying to embrace minimalism. I will never really be “minimalist” because there are things we just need to keep for our various activities. The basement has shelves holding home canned goods and the supplies to do that as well as slaughter, process, seal and grind our home grown meat. I also have a fair amount of tools, hoarded nails and pieces of wood that I will keep because you never know when you might need to patch something in the barn or a fence, etc. So, I am going to have more “stuff” than a minimalist would. I’m ok with that.
What I have done is start with my closet, which is huge and yet was hard to walk in and finding something to wear was difficult. I got rid of everything that didn’t fit. Anything with a hole in it was thrown away. Then I started looking at the clothes I was keeping, which let me tell ya, was still a ton, and started picking over it. I don’t want to have to get up in the morning and stand in my closet overwhelmed by the selection. I want to just go in and have clothes that fit and I know are nice and pull them out quickly. I’m not there yet. I’m trying to do a little bit of it a week. It’s coming along though. The first two pictures are before, the third one is in process. As you can see I still have a million clothes, but my closet is much improved.
Then I started de-cluttering decor. I had pictures stacked in my bedroom because I didn’t have a place for them. So the pictures I love are now hung up and the rest, the rest have been donated. I hope someone else finds them and appreciates them.
Toys and the kitchen are things that are pretty constantly gone over because they are high traffic, high use areas. Even still we pared them down even more. I also went through junk drawers and closets throwing things out, donating things and organizing what is left. If you saw the closet in one of the bathrooms you wouldn’t probably see a huge difference. There is still wrapping paper, veterinary supplies, incubator and rags. Lots of things still in there but when I see it, I got rid of half of what I’d kept. It feels really nice.
My goal is to feel less stressed. To have a nicer house that isn’t difficult to manage. To not spend so much time picking up. Time that I haven’t been able to play with the kids. I want to have more time for my babies and my passions, which isn’t house cleaning.