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THE PURGE

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I’ve been absent for Joyful Mom!  I’ve been Joyful in other places :-)

We have been purging the house.  It didn’t actually start out as a plan.  It wasn’t on the calendar.  It just has sort of “happened.”   Last week my daughter said “I can’t put my clothes away!!!” and I was thinking “no kidding–you never fold anything, you keep everything on the floor and then cram it into any drawer when you hear me coming up the stairs (in a non-joyful way). . . ”  When finished stomping up the stairs, I looked at the amount of clothes she had  I was amazed–I didn’t buy her all of these clothes . . .

Then I realized, when her older sister grows out of something . . . it goes to her drawer . . . so now she has double of everything!  I dropped everything– thinking that it would be an easy chore . . . just a little sorting . . . (If you give a mom a simple chore . . . )

  1. Girls clothes, sorted first by one fits, secondly, by season, and then out of season clothes staying in their room just up on the shelf.
  2. In order to use the shelf space I needed to open boxes that were just stuck up there since we moved . . . the girls needed to make hard decisions about their treasure and the amount of American Girl doll stuff.
  3. They LOVE the American Girl Dolls but it isn’t fun to play when everything is all over the place so we needed a plan for where.
  4. Ken (the carpenter) finished “American Girl Dollville) the place under the stairs–a hang out for the girls (pictures soon) so they worked on that area.
  5. Girls getting American Girl Dollville organized is taking longer than they thought–they have more than what they first thought about–now we need hangers . . .
  6. Created a makeshift office for my husband in the guest room.  That required:  moving 1 dresser into the boys room, moving the other dresser over to the other wall, clearing off a table from the basement (I have a huge basement project ongoing, I write about it here and a lot more through this series of honesty), clearing out under the bed.
  7. The clearing out under the bed I found my Christmas pillows that I “lost” and all the flannel sheets . . .
  8. When I found the flannel sheets I had to put them in the linen closet–which I needed to organize first.
  9. After I cleared out the linen closet I had to create another box for goodwill, a pile of things to take pictures of for Joyful Mom, and lots of toiletries to go to our local homeless shelter.
  10. Then tackled the boys room:  the dresser from the guest room replaced a rickety old dresser (that will now be used in American Girl Dollville), went through all the clothes, made piles for Goodwill, and cleared out Legos and Bionicle.
  11. Now I have several piles in the garage going out . . . I’m happy about that.
  12. In the midst of all of this I bought a desk for my daughter at a resale place that supports a pet rescue–
  13. When we bought the desk we needed to clear out the homeschool room,
  14. I had two extra desks which I found homes for . . .
  15. I wanted to clean and organize while we were at it . . .
IMG_2165

the new desk is on the right, the table is a place for kids computer and a work space for a middle schooler and the turtles are in the tank. The fish are now on the desk–a work in progress!

a cleared out kitchen cupboard, which I did fill with a few cookbooks from the basement.

a cleared out kitchen cupboard, which I did fill with a few cookbooks from the basement.

Our ongoing projects are to:

  1. Organize our master bedroom closet.
  2. Go through all of the kitchen cupboards–PURGE!
  3. Decide if we want the current homeschool room to be moved into the basement or to have the basement be a “hang out place” and a craft area for the girl and me?
  4. The basement project will take the longest–I’m having Ken put in some shelves, we need to ruthlessly go through everything . . . but I’m ready–the time is right.  Emotionally I’m in a good spot to tackle this project.

How about you . . . do you live a life of resembling “If you give a mouse a cookie.”  Do your start one thing and have it snowball into a huge project?  or Do you start with one intention and then realize part way through that what you are doing doesn’t serve your purpose?  I would love to hear your stories.  Please tell me I’m not alone!

Linking up I should be mopping the floor, Craftastic Party, motivation monday, create with joy, Busy Mondays, mindful mothering, and with Ann, The Better Mom, Rediscovering Domesticity, Titus 2 Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday, Titus (2)sdays, Gradituesdays, Heart and Home, Whatever Works Wednesday, Wisdom Wednesday, Show and Share Wednesday, Saturday Show and Share.

I lost 218 lbs. + 4

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My weight update:

I lost 218 lbs of stuff to go to good will.

I actually have 2 bags of clothes from the closet project . . . but I didn’t weigh those.  I didn’t include the bags of trash . . .

I let go of a bunch of physical stuff I didn’t need.

When I let go of the physical “treasures” I felt better physically–I have less visual clutter, I can breathe deeper, my mind isn’t thinking about the projects I will never complete.  I feel lighter.

In the midst of all this I lost 4 lbs.  I didn’t count calories, I went walking twice and I became still in my thoughts as I wrote my entries and thought deep thoughts.

As I worked through some things and identified other challenges that I have (and plan to write about), as I tried had to live in the moment–every moment, I realized that life is so incredibly full.

I began a practice of sitting silently during the day–I put it on the schedule to sit–not sit and fold laundry, school the kids or knit (and being in the car did not count)–but to sit and just be.  Sort of like Yoga Sitting–I think about my breathing, my purpose, my kids come in and out giving me hugs . . . I pray for friends, family and souls I will never meet on this earth.

Peace comes from within.  

I knew that–I wrote about it here.   My first ever post on 12/9/2010.  A two year journey.  And now, just now, the concept has moved from my head, to my heart and now lives deep in my soul.

It was always there–I just couldn’t find it–I was so focused on keeping up with the pace of the life I created–because if I’m really busy then I can’t just sit and think and be intentional.  I couldn’t find peace in all of the boxes of my different collections, I couldn’t find peace in a closet full of clothes that took me to the past each day, I couldn’t find it among books I’ll never get to read or magazines filled with recipes, knitting patterns and sewing tutorials that I will never make or use.

I smile a lot more.  I laugh louder–totally embarrassing my kids!  I feel joy.

Maybe in November I’ll be able to exercise more and maybe count a few calories–lose more weight.  My goal is to gain in joy what I lose in pounds!

Be blessed.

24/31 days of being honest: The Basement Museum

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This was my first post about my basement project and what has now become my Basement Therapy Project!  I wrote this a little over a year ago.  Notice that in the blog my goal was to have it done by Christmas–I didn’t say Christmas of any specific year!

Enjoy.

We have been in our house now for 15 weeks and we still have too many boxes to go through.  I am painfully going through each one and organizing “stuff” and then I decide if I want to keep it, recycle or trash it.  It seems like it should be pretty straightforward but it isn’t.

It is like my own personal museum of precious artifacts.

I have the Single pre-Eric era, the Early Years of migrating to Dallas, TX, Palatine, IL and Livermore CA and the Starting a family Period and now finally the Raising of the Family.

Within each time frame I have too many things that are laced with too many wonderful memories of that time.  How can I get rid of scrapbook supplies–especially now that the girls may be interested.  Or my rollerblades, books never read, journals never finished, quilts 1/2 done and the list goes on and on.  How many winter coats do I need, hats, mittens, it is just all a little too much.

That is just my stuff!  I have mega blocks, transformers, almost every lego ever made, craft and art supplies for kids, building blocks, a million books, a rocking horse, Little People, and so much dress up I don’t know what to do with.

My goal is to have our basement finished by Christmas.  I want to go through each box and make thoughtful decisions and spread the word on what I have so that I can hopefully give things a good home.

I’m not sure how I got to this place.  I know that it is too much and I feel good about letting go and getting rid of the excess.  When I look at it all it is much easier to tell my kids no they don’t need another (insert latest thing) and for me it means that I really don’t need anything either.

We have been weeding out since last November and I look forward to when the biggest chunk of this project is finally behind us and we can move forward in making more purposeful purchases.  It has been an awakening for all of us.  When the kids look at a pile of stuffed animals it become obvious that they don’t “need” all of them.  When I get all of my quilts organized I think about all the hours I spent on those projects and I remember picking out the fabric, researching the history of the pattern and the excitement of beginning the project.

Thank you God for giving me the determination to complete these projects and the grace to learn from my mistakes.  Please help me make wise decisions when I make purchases.

Today I’m linking up with Women Living Well, Whatever Works Wednesday, Work in Progress, and with Ann.