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Declutter the House (and Mind)

 Wow - it has been a LONG time since I've posted here. Maybe that's a good thing, ha!  

I'm posting now because I am setting a challenge for myself.  It's the 30 day Minimalism Challenge. If you have never heard of it, the rules are simple. Basically you get rid of stuff every single day for 30 days. The usual rules are 1 thing on the 1st, 2 things on the 2nd, 3 things on the 3rd and so on until you have gotten rid of 465 things.  I tried it once before and didn't make it very far, maybe day 5. I found that growing number to be kind of intimidating so I am going to change it up a little bit. I am going to write down numbers 1-30 on pieces of paper and randomly pick one every day. That will be the number of items I get rid of that day.  The idea is these items must be OUT of your house by midnight each day.  In my case, I'm sure that the husband's car trunk will hold quite a collection for a weekly donation run since I don't have time to make that run daily (sorry husband!)

 I find that the less stuff there is in a space, the calmer I feel. It's something I have tried to tell the kiddies for a while now (especially the youngest). The cleaner and neater the space, the calmer the mind. I have a friend whose house I go to pretty regularly to play with her absolutely adorable cats who owns very little. She decluttered YEARS ago and continues to do so regularly (even though she owns almost nothing compared to my house).  While I am sitting on her floor, entertaining the cats (or rather being entertained by the cats), I always admire the surroundings and think how much easier it must be to clean the whole house, how much less time it takes, how much calmer and organized it feels.  While I know my house will never reach the level that hers is, I know that I can make mine MUCH more manageable. 


 

I fall into this bad habit of thinking Hey I paid for this stuff, I should at least sell it and make a few bucks back - WHEN I HAVE TIME.  But guess what?  I never have that kind of time - figure out what to sell, how much to sell it for, take pictures, list it, go through the dozens of fake responses, set up a time for drop-off/pick-up, etc.  I just don't have the time for it. In the meantime, I have a lot of stuff that maybe someone else could use just sitting around collecting dust, not earning any money regardless. It's time to part with it.  My life is so chaotic. I work 7 days a week, sometimes close to 80 hours a week. I need some calm and this one step to getting that. 

If anyone wants to join me on the challenge, I would welcome it!  We can keep each other accountable, and I'm sure my minimalist friend will also keep me accountable (right? Wink, wink).  Let's do this together! 

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