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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 . . .
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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.

My Creative Home

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In my mind I have an awesome home–the counters are always clear and shiny, the floors always have those fresh vacuum lines, the clothes are always put neatly in drawers, my bathrooms smell clean and a bit like bleach (even though I don’t use bleach anymore), the sun shines through windows without fingerprints, my kitchen sink is empty, the dishwasher is empty, washer and dryer empty and there is no lint hiding . . . my books are arranged on shelves, pictures are in albums or even better–I scrapbook!

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But the reality is . . . my house is very lived in and very comfortable.  My dining room table is big enough to accommodate any guest at any time (even though the table is really too big for the room), my bathrooms are clean enough and my kitchen looks nice for about 5 minutes/week.  I’m ok with it.  I’d rather have a home that fosters creativity than one that is clean.  I love hearing the piano several times a day for varying intervals, singing solos and duets, a quilt in the making or a beading project that was stalled . . . in order to pick flowers and herbs.

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I tell my kids:

if you can learn to make things–you can have something new everyday!

I have a blogging friend name Renee (love that name) and she has written a book about being creative–in your own way.  I’ve read it and recommended it to several friends.  It is inspiring.  It validated my choice to be creative when I might be too busy to do it the way I had when I was single or before kids.


Nurturing Creativity: A Guide for Busy Moms

I’ve read this book over and over and each time feel like my creativity really is nurtured!

Be Blessed as you make your space humble and sacred.

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21/31 days of honesty: not a quiet Sunday

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I like to take Sunday off–I only check email in the am when I wake up and right before I to bed–in case of a school related issue.  I don’t answer email.  I do answer a text if it is about something that is happening the next day or from my close friend (we often text because trying to talk on the phone can be tricky and our conversations–are “ongoing”.

Today it was too busy

  • French Toast Bake Breakfast w/bacon
  • 9:30 Mass
  • Home Depot to buy 3 toilets
  • worked in the basement
  • made lunch and ate together
  • the next task was to rake the back yard but my husband wanted to work on the garage because we had to clear out a spot for the toilets!  The garage was on the to-do list for next weekend
  • started dinner (apple pie, roast beef and roasted veggies–homemade gravy that was phenomenal)
  • I went through the rest of the garage–so that project is complete–everything in the garage is something that I will use!  I’m so happy that we were able to get that done.
  • Ate dinner in the dining room–our Sunday tradition–it was awesome with our new light!
  • Folded clothes with my hubby
  • scrub up Sunday for the kids, reading, and bed . . .

It was not the day of rest but I’m getting closer to have a clutter free home.  It felt great to say–“get rid of it” and not feel like part of me was being thrown out too.

My goal is to have the basement cleared out and in great shape by Christmas!  I’m not doing it by myself–I’ve had lots of help from friends–some help I have to pay for but mostly I have friends who are helping me with this journey because they can see how much pain is involved.  Sometimes it is painful for them as well as me!

It has been quite humbling to ask for help.  I am blessed by such great friends.

Does anyone else feel this way?  That asking for help is difficult and brings up so many more emotions that the “thing” that you need help with?  What a crazy cycle of feeling helpless.