Anyone else feel like their stuff is closing in on them? Let's be honest, we have so much stuff! I have so much stuff, my husband has so much stuff, our kids have so much stuff. The result is that we are a mess. I try so hard to keep my main areas of my house mostly picked up, but behind closed doors, it is R I D I C U L O U S people! My kids rooms are awful, like pig pens... I feel like I have a full time job walking around behind my kids picking up behind them.
About 6 months ago, I had enough. These pictures are raw and unedited friends. Like couldn't take it anymore, get the trash bags out kind of done. I started with our youngest daughters room and threw out 6 bags of trash and donations that day. My kids were ticked and I felt so accomplished. The funniest thing happened though, after about 24 hours, she didn't even remember what I had gotten rid of and actually came and thanked me for cleaning her room and for making it easier to keep her room clean.
That was all I needed to spur me on. I dove in on my other kids rooms, after that I started in on all the common areas. I must have gotten rid of a truck load worth of stuff. I threw away stuff that wasn't in good repair and donated SO much stuff that we weren't using. The result is so much more peace. Our kids are keeping their areas cleaner... certainly not to the standard that I would prefer, but they don't look like a bomb went off in there anymore. We are actually preparing for our daughters to share a room and the fact that they have less stuff has made the combining of their rooms more about furniture needs than stuff and where to put it.
As I was going through this decluttering tornado, there were a few things that helped me along the way.
- If you aren't using it, and it's not sentimental, don't keep it. We had so much stuff that was just there. We had just accumulated it and it was there. It wasn't being used, it wasn't serving a purpose, it didn't have a home, but it was with us. This was the easy stuff to get rid of. That face mask from a subscription box that I didn't really care for needed to go. It needed to find a home with someone who would love it or go in the trash. I didn't need 4 sets of sheets for each bed. One on the bed and one spare is more than enough. One set of pots and pans was enough. Cutting the general clutter was the easiest part of this journey.
- Everything needs a home and it's current home might not be the right home. Every single thing in the house needed a spot where everyone knew where it went. The struggle in our house has been that I am a constant re-organizer. I love being organized, but don't always think long term about whether that home will work longer than that moment. The result is that no one really knows where anything goes in my house but me and that has led to me being frustrated about doing most of the cleaning myself. Some of this is about communication, some of this is about needing to think more long term about where something went. For example, my pots and pans. When we moved into our house, I put all the pots and pans that we had in one smaller cabinet just to the left of the stove. In my mind, this made sense because of proximity. But I was constantly stacking and unstacking pots and pans, dropping lids out and never able to find anything. I came to realize that a bigger cabinet just slightly farther from the stove where I could easily grab them out and see everything that I have easily.
- Keep the sentimental items that you will display proudly and limit the rest. We used to have boxes of stuff in our garage that held sentimental items. We had ALL the kids baby clothes, stuff from our own childhoods, decorations left over from our wedding and tons of other random items. It was weighing us down. When we moved from our first house into our second house, while I was pregnant with our third child, my husband put his foot down. All this stuff, that I was so attached to, was not coming with us. The kids and the dog could come, the furniture could come, the 15 tubs of baby items that I was holding on to just in case I needed them later, were NOT coming with us. I learned a lesson as I went through all of those items. I was not as attached to them as I thought. I had held onto every, single piece of clothing that they had worn. Some of it was stained and unusable, some of it was great and reusable, and some of it was truly precious. So I held onto the outfits that they were brought home in and the outfits that they were dedicated in and donated the rest. Now, I love displaying the items in our home that are meaningful and am happy to let someone else use the rest of them.
- Have a designated spot for donations. Having a designated place where you put things that are ready for find another home has been so helpful. It has helped us release items more easily because those items might sit in that bucket for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before they actually leave the house. It gives you the chance to rethink the items usefulness. It also allows the opportunity to regularly de-clutter because there is a home for this stuff. Ours is in our laundry room on the shelf above the washer and dryer so that I can easily toss clothes that have outlived their usefulness or are stained or ripped in the bucket as I am folding laundry.
- Less is more.I love clean surfaces... now. When we were first married, I loved having a collection of pretty things on every surface. As time went on, dust collected on all of these things and I realized that I had no idea when I purchased or otherwise brought all of these things into my world how much work they would be to maintain. Every item that I own brings with it a time commitment to maintain that item. It took quite a bit of clutter accumulating and quite a bit of complaining from my husband, who has clutter issues for reasons all his own, for me to realize that all of this stuff was robbing me of time that I could otherwise invest in other things I would rather spend time doing. It has helped me tremendously to consider the time commitment that things will bring before I allow them to enter my world.
About 6 months ago, I had enough. These pictures are raw and unedited friends. Like couldn't take it anymore, get the trash bags out kind of done. I started with our youngest daughters room and threw out 6 bags of trash and donations that day. My kids were ticked and I felt so accomplished. The funniest thing happened though, after about 24 hours, she didn't even remember what I had gotten rid of and actually came and thanked me for cleaning her room and for making it easier to keep her room clean. 
That was all I needed to spur me on. I dove in on my other kids rooms, after that I started in on all the common areas. I must have gotten rid of a truck load worth of stuff. I threw away stuff that wasn't in good repair and donated SO much stuff that we weren't using. The result is so much more peace. Our kids are keeping their areas cleaner... certainly not to the standard that I would prefer, but they don't look like a bomb went off in there anymore. We are actually preparing for our daughters to share a room and the fact that they have less stuff has made the combining of their rooms more about furniture needs than stuff and where to put it. 
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