Marie Kondo I am not. Having a company ready home? Nope, don’t have that either. What I do have is a house full of people and stuff, lots and lots of stuff. So much stuff. When Dan and I married 15 years ago this Saturday, we combined two three-bedroom houses, our kids, pets and all that come with them. Since then, we’ve purged a little and gained a lot more.
I’m a pack rat. Dan is a pack rat. Together we have five children, who are pack rats. And now a granddaughter who is also a pack rat. We’re not quite to the point of an episode of Hoarders, but I feel like we are. We just have too much stuff. Because I can’t find something when I need it, I end up getting another one. Then I find the one I was looking for, so now I have duplicates. Because of all the stuff we’ve accumulated, we were able to help our oldest daughter partially furnish her first place. Same for the oldest son and youngest son. Soon, we’ll be doing the same for the youngest daughter. We could probably furnish your place too if you’re just starting out on your own. I’m not kidding.
This month of April I’ve given myself a challenge. For each day of the month I must remove the number of items from my home that corresponds to the date of the month. For example, on April 1 I removed one thing. On April 15th, I’ll remove fifteen and so on. By the end of April and by doing this, I’ll have removed 465 items from my home. Probably won’t even put a dent in things but it’s a start. I might have to challenge myself to do this two or three months this year.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my stuff. Most of my stuff isn’t junk, it’s just that we’ve outgrown it or it no longer suits our lives. I’ll donate quite a bit. I might sell some of it. Some of it will go with the two kids that are still at home when they finally move out. Some I will have to throw away but that’s okay. The important part of this whole thing is that I’ll be finding new homes for some of my stuff while at the same time freeing up space in my home. Space to breathe. Space to relax. Space to entertain. Just space.
My goal in doing all of this is that I want to be able to find whatever it is that I need, when I need it. I don’t want to have a panic attack whenever we plan a cookout or plan to have people stay at our home. My master bedroom is buried right now because that’s where everything goes when we do that panic clean before we have people over to the house. I want to be able to walk into my bedroom, my sanctuary and it actually be my sanctuary. So, I’m working this goal hard this month. I will conquer this and I will be organized. My home will be put together and we will have space.
Kaz's Korner 