The Great Purge 2013

Over the past few weeks, I have really been inclined to stop talking about how much I dislike cleaning and actually do something about it.  While putting in the time to clean up our home little by little every day came the desire to de-clutter.  The first three days of my new-found cleaning routine, I realized how much clutter I did not want to continue dusting each and every week.  I started purging items from my bedside table and ended up with one whole box of items to donate as well as one plastic bag of trash. 

After being able to see the wood surface of my bedside table and having next to nothing in the drawers, I was motivated to continue de-cluttering throughout the house.  After three days of my husband watching me clean, purge and enjoy my hard work, something in him changed.  His mentality of “more” was morphing into the realization that we have too much!  He realized that he did not enjoy living with the stuff that littered nearly every flat surface of our home.  The best part of this change is that I did not have to say a single word about it: he discovered this himself (which in my mind, leads to long-term change).

The purging process is going to take (a lot of) time and I’m sure it will never really be complete but I love that we are finally moving in the right direction.  After just a couple of weeks, we have been watching our possessions leave our home and it does not bother us one bit.  I am very nostalgic which is one reason we have so much, and that will probably never change, but it is getting better.

My husband brought up a good point: I have my hand in too many pots.  It is time to focus on just one or two activities.  I have always wanted to be able to maintain our home, spend quality time with family, have a huge (productive) garden, love on our (6) fur-babies, raise chickens, grow fruit, compost and keep up with my new-found love of getting lost in books.  Oh, and lets not forget about having to work 42.5 hours a week with a 10 hour commute..  The issue is that I am trying to do too much and I am not doing any of it well!  Case in point: this year’sgarden.

My focus right now is going to be on:

1. Quality time with family
2. Taking care of the fur-babies
3. Maintaining a clean home

That’s it.  Nothing more. These are the three areas of my life that I am focusing on.  The garden is done this year, so I don’t have to worry about that. I have some things to do with the fruit trees, bushes and vines but it is not very time consuming (not to mention I have 2 months to do it in).  Everything else is being put aside for now.  I am even contemplating selling the flock to someone who wants to raise their own chickens.  There are several people in our area selling free-range brown eggs for $2/dozen.  It is much easier to pick up eggs twice a month versus the time to clean the chicken coop, feed them and count heads twice a day to make sure none were taken by a predator!

I am learning that purging leads to simplicity, and that is what we are aiming for in life.

Less stress, more time together and with family, and contentment with our possessions.

Have you been de-cluttering lately?

What tips or suggestions do you have for this newbie?