Encouraged...

For the last few months I have been going through all of our stuff and asking myself, "Do we need this? And when did I use this last? Or do I have plans to use it again?" Sometimes it is, "Is this worth keeping and storing and dusting? Or do I let it go and buy it again later if I need it?"

We have been struggling around here for a long time with cleaning up and keeping things tidy. I have bought almost every style of plastic bin and storage helper ever marketed. I have taught, and taught, and taught. I have lectured, and lectured, and lectured. I have sadly, at times, succumb to raising my voice and threatening to throw everything away. I don't want to be the kind of mom that rants and raves to get a reaction from her kids. So, something had to change.

In the past when I have merely suggested to the children that I plan to go through their things and purge the unused items there have been tears and cries for mercy. This time around, I decided to focus on me first. I have plenty of excess in my life, demonstrated by the non-stop counter clutter (both in my kitchen and bathroom), and my frequently impassible craft room and office. 

Starting with low-hanging fruit, I went through my closet and got rid of clothes. My mother was thrilled to find out I ditched all my sweatpants and old nursing t-shirts. I got rid of clothes that no longer fit my body type or style, anything that had become too short or worn. I filled 5 or 6 trash bags to give to the women's shelter. I went through E's clothes next (with his permission, of course) and discovered he owned 27 pairs of shorts. 27!?!?!? He now owns 9. :) I also got rid of some polo shirts and dress shirts which pre-dated our marriage 13 years ago. The same day I went through his clothes the tragedy in West, TX hit and a call for a specific size of men's clothes went out, and we could fill it, all from our closet give away pile! 

I culled out stuff we never used or lost interest in from the craft room and the books in the classroom from previous curriculums were separated. I got rid of art supplies that weren't what we were using regularly. I even cleaned out the office which had become the "dumping ground". We have a lot more to do, crayon boxes and pencil boxes need to be weeded out, my bathroom needs some organizational help (ideas welcome), but all-in-all, great headway has been made. 

After about two weeks of purging my stuff, I mentioned to the children that we needed to go through their stuff. And they shocked me by being on board! At first I thought it wasn't going to last, but the kids had caught the vision to live leaner and hopefully cleaner! The kids were honest with themselves about what they use and don't use. The toys they weren't quite ready to say goodbye to forever were moved to my mom's house where they could still play with them and they would seem "new" because they were no longer in the day to day mix. 

We have filled 1/4 of my mom's garage with stuff to take to the local women's shelter. We have another growing pile of toddler and preschool toys to set up the nursery and classrooms for our church plant once we land in a permanent location. I have acquired a large pile of EMPTY plastic bins, freed up by all the purging. A friend suggested I give them away... I am not sure I am ready for that just yet. It is not that I plan to fill them up, but for the possibility that kids' interests change and necessitate different box sizes, or for the inevitable broken box which previously would have sent me rushing to the store in hopes of finding a matching replacement. 

While we aren't anywhere near finished, the progress we have made has been so freeing. The fact is, there are a lot of us, in a variety of age levels and with varying interests, and I know we will likely never have a clutter-less home. I am not sure I even want that. What I do want is to live in my home unencumbered by stuff. I want to teach my children what it means to be a good steward. And sometimes that means giving things away. An unexpected blessing has been budget friendly, after spending weeks purging closets and bookshelves and drawers, I have no interest in going to the store to buy anything. Nothing. Nada. I have gone into Target three times and come out with nothing. I even went into Hobby lobby and came out with no bags, I think it freaked out my mom who said upon leaving, "We never come to this store and buy nothing!  What is wrong?!?!?" Clean-up time has been reduced which has been truly worth all the hours of work.  We have some work to do on forming better habits (like putting things away when you are done with them instead of needing to be called back), and we have some dawdling tendencies to address, but it has been so much easier to do with less than it was with more. 

So, if sometime this summer you come to my house and wonder why I have trash bags lining the hallway, now you know. At some point, I need to go through my books... I wonder if there are any small libraries around that I could make a donation to... I could probably supply the whole children's section. :)