HI! This is my very first ever blog post. Blogging has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. The idea of having a blog lived on the list of one of those things I’ll do “someday”. Well I decided that “someday” has finally arrived! Do people want to read a blog about decluttering? I don’t know. I don’t even know what I'm doing, but I’m so ready to make changes in my home and in my life that I’m just going to dig right in and hold myself accountable while putting it all out there! Maybe while I’m at it, I can help inspire and motivate others on their quest to a decluttered and organized home too! Ha!
A little bit about me? My name is Elle and I am a 40 something year old mom to two very busy boys ages 12 and 13. For many years, I have struggled with maintaining an organized house and have struggled with anxiety when it comes to the clutter that is taking over. Maybe its because when we moved in 10 years ago I didn’t do a great job of weeding out “stuff”. I mean I did have a 3 year old, an 18 month old and a broken foot, but it just feels like we never really properly moved in and got organized. There is stuff that got packed up and stored in our basement that I probably really could have used when we moved in if I knew where it was put but that are just taking up space now. Over the years we have amassed a lot of clutter. Hidden clutter - its not always obvious that I struggle with clutter because it’s clutter that lives in the basement, behind closed doors, in the garage. Clutter that gets in the way of me finding what I need to when I need to. It’s also clutter that has become overwhelming and extremely anxiety inducing.
We live in a 1785 square foot split level home. Not huge, not tiny. I love it - or the idea of what I want it to be. In my mind, there really is no reason our family of 4 should be struggling for space and yet we are. Our house is a place where if we know people are coming over, I can get it company ready….at least the parts that the people will be in. Sometimes it doesn’t even take a long time to make it look like we’ve got it together. Just please don’t go in the basement, the garage, or really anywhere upstairs…and especially don't open closets, or drawers! And living like this…where the thought of someone stopping by on a whim or when the kids have their friends over and want to play hide and seek indoors sends me into a panic!! It is exhausting and I’m over it.
THE LAST STRAW
We recently found ourselves in a bit of a space dilemma. Our boys had been sharing a bedroom for several years and we decided it was time for them to have their own rooms. To make this happen, I needed to give up my craft room. My amazingly organized, color coded, happy place. MY space. But trust me, giving up that space for a bit more peace between my boys has been worth it. The problem though became where to relocate everything to? I’m a knitter and actually earn money knitting. I have A LOT of yarn and knitting needles! Not to mention supplies for the other crafts I dabble in. I was not about to store my craft supplies in the basement. The basement has become the place in our house where everything goes to get lost and never gets used again. I definitely wasn’t putting anything in the garage! Nope. It’s a one car garage full of outdoor stuff and spiders live there. It boggles my mind though that we have decent sized living and family rooms but nowhere to relocate my craft stuff to. So we rented a storage unit at a place down the road. And that’s when I decided that it’s time for a massive whole house declutter.
In my quest to solve our space issue, I feel like I’ve tried it all. I’ll haul out a closet and make the classic 3 piles….keep, donate, throw away. Things will get organized and look great for a little bit but without fail, I feel like we're always trying to organize and reorganize the same clutter. I’ve bought the organizing and cleaning books. I've purchased bins. So many bins. But there are always those few items that we think we want to keep but don’t know where to put that end up either getting moved around until we figure out what to do with them…or go into a box or bin of things we don’t know what to do with. Then because the box is taking up space, it ends up being moved to the basement…where like I said before, things get lost and never used again.
I've tried different organizing methods and systems with the idea that if I just have instructions on how to organize my house, it'll happen. But the problem with that is that when I try to religiously follow someone else's methods for organizing in the order that they do it, I become more frustrated because I'm really not addressing the main sources of clutter I need to address. I do have thoughts about how I'm going to proceed with my whole house declutter and I can't wait to begin!!
I’m not an expert. I’m not naturally organized (I do love organization though). I haven't been hired to write about this process. I’m not making promises that if you are reading my blog that I will come up with any magic solutions to a clean and tidy house. Honestly, I’m doubting I will have many readers. But if blogging about my progress in decluttering my home helps keep me accountable, then I’m all in….and the clutter can get out!! LET'S DECLUTTER!!!
Comments