simplify and declutter

is the ultimate motivator. We have been iced in for days, on top of a rainy weekend. I am pretty amazed by my long list of accomplishments, especially since my ‘to-do list’ only consisted of watching the news and staying busy between the every 2 hour phone calls to my work’s weather hot-line.

I organized my built-in bookshelves, decluttering mass amounts of junk. How do we accumulate so much? Then I finished building a table to match the chairs we put together 5 months ago. Yes.. 5 months. The chairs were such a pain and we ended up arguing and deciding to just forget the whole thing. Forgotten, the pieces hid under the bed, and taunted me. It took me less than 10 minutes, and I did it without help. I’m embarrassed by how long such a simple task lingered. Now we have a place to eat like adults, instead of our laps in front of the TV like we have been doing for years. I am also happy to say that all expired medications and such have been thrown out, along with expired makeup, lotions, etc.

Clutter begone!

i have a lots of pictures, cards, letters, etc from over the years, that just sit in a box. maybe once every 2 years i go through it. while i had not considered this ‘clutter’ before, there is simply no other way to describe it. i think that i am going to make a scrapbook so that it is all organized, and i can enjoy it when i want to. this will also eliminate the ugly box, and leave me with just an extra book or two on my shelf. i can use my high school yearbook for one of them, but i need to find a scrap book kit. once this is done, i will consider this goal complete (for now).

i’m actually much better with keeping things simple. over the last couple of years and moves, i’ve had to get rid of things simply to make them fit in my limited space. in the process i think i let go of my attachment to things in general.

in fact, i’ve been itching to clean out my storage closet. i have things in storage that should be at goodwill. only problem is i cannot lift heavy things because of my stupid arm. so in order to do this, i have to talk my love into helping me. and therein lies the problem.

the poor dear is such a pack rat. he doesn’t leave it all over the house (for the most part) but boxes it up. so there are boxes and boxes of clutter in the storage closet, at the top of the closet in the bedroom, behind doors, etc. every time i see one, i cringe. i just want to go through, and trash it.

i already told him when we move to our next place (5-6 months from now) we are NOT paying movers to move boxes of trash. he will have to go through them with me, and let me throw 90% of it away. he was resistant until i made him watch a few episodes of Clean House and told him we were going to end up with a mess like that if he continued in this habit. the look of horror on his face was priceless! i think i will win this little battle. ;)