Clutter Reality Check

In thinking about moving in a few months, I am realizing that my desire to live with less is where the rubber meets the road. I look around our home and wonder why I still have this? Why do I have so many of that item? Why have I not found a permanent home for that item?

I have some serious work to do.

I recently spoke about simplifying, decluttering, and living with less, and anytime I speak about my passions and heart, they become even more deeply ingrained in me. Over the past 4 years, I have been in the urge to purge mode. I recently went through our medicines and had no clue that some of them had been expired for YEARS. Then I went through a few little containers of small items and thought why in the world do I have multiples of so many things? Like travel-size toothpaste? I know, they are good for traveling, but I do not travel that much in a year. Let alone needing a travel size! No worries, I did not just pitch them, but we have slowly been working through them so that we do not have 7 sitting unused.

You get my drift.

It is unsettling to me when I think about how much we own that goes unused. A few analogies that have always stuck with me is if someone told me to “unpack” our home and put everything out on the curb, would I be embarrassed? With some things, I would be. I would sheepishly put it out there, feeling like I have to justify why I own it. I know that when I have to justify, not to that person only, but more or less talk myself into why I still have it, it’s time to get rid of it.

Stuff is just STUFF. It clutters our homes and clutters our hearts. And we make excuses for that clutter. The stuff we hang onto may not have a purpose, but we do not dare get rid of it for fear that we might want to use it someday. I can honestly say that only a handful of times, we wish we would have kept something. Hanging onto the stuff in your home only takes more time to maintain it, more time to organize it, and clean it.

In the next few months, I’ve got some work to do. I am hoping this next move will be one of our last. Ever. With that said, I want this new chapter to start simple and stay simplified. There will always be decluttering seasons, but I don’t want to have to spend months decluttering, but to stay on top of it. I want our life to reflect simple living and in order to do that, like I said, I’ve got some work to do!

You in?