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I’ve been on a mission to declutter my home. We moved into our house in 2008, and I feel like there are areas that we never really organized to begin with. I think we just opened boxes and threw items in places where it would fit with the notion to come back later and organize. However, that is all changing. Four years later, here I am…decluttering! (The picture above is not my home…keep reading).
There are usually two reasons why clutter happens.
- It is either because there was never a place for the item to begin with or..
- There is a possible sentimental attachment to the item. I find both of these to be true.
I can honestly say that the sentimental attachment to things was a problem for me. However, that has changed dramatically in the past few months. It all began last year when my dad passed away. He owned a building with a large warehouse. The warehouse was not only a place to store plumbing materials, but a place to store decades of memories, momentos, toys, books, furniture, and just stuff from my parent’s years of being together and my childhood. I’m talking about stuff from the 1950′s also, even before that!
Several months after my dad passed we had to sell the building and warehouse. Before it was sold, we had the hard project of clearing out boxes and going through things that basically collected dust over the years. This is what we had to deal with:
The very top picture of this blog post is the after cleanup picture. In many of those boxes are momentos and stuff we had to go through. As you can see, it was so incredibly overwhelming that it got to the point we just wanted to be done with it! I don’t take credit for cleaning up this place. My husband and I cleaned up a lot of the personal momentos, but the plumbing stuff my mom had help with fortunately.
This experience in my life taught me that I could let go of some things. There were many items in that warehouse that in a way I would have liked to keep. However, what am I going to do with it? When the building was sold, I felt like another part of me was ripped out of me. This was my dad’s work for years. I lost my dad and now his shop and business. What was important to me was my dad. Now since I lost my dad, the little material items don’t mean as much to me anymore. The only material items from the warehouse that mean a lot to me are photos and personal items my dad owned or gave me or that I find very special in some way.
After being through this experience, it is much easier to get rid of stuff in my house. I feel like letting go of “stuff” in my house gives me more freedom because it allows me to be organized. My house is definitely not simplified or organized yet. It probably won’t ever be 100% organized with small kids. However, I am on a mission to clearing out drawers, closets, boxes, and anything that I brought into this marriage or after that has been sitting there in a box. So far, I have organized my bookshelves, one closet, and foyer. We own a large ottoman that had this stuff inside of it:
This picture does not include the stuff behind me! Sorry for the blurry picture. I can proudly say that the ottoman in the foyer now has diapers, swim diapers, and birthday gift bags to use for presents. I threw a way one garbage bag of junk today, and I feel good about it.
When deciding to declutter your home, you need to think what items really has a true sentimental attachment. What are the items you would think about if a fire happened? What items make you think about a loved one? What items are you keeping because you might need it one day….and then 20 years later you still don’t need it. These are some questions to ask yourself when you organize your home. Decluttering your house is decluttering your life because you are making it more simplifed.
When was the last time you decluttered an area in your home?
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About Crystal
