Stuff-ism

Flylady says, "You can't clean clutter, you can only get rid of it." My husband is reading a book that coined it "Stuff-ism". What ever you call it, however you look at it, my house is full of clutter: too many toys, too many articles of clothing, too many odds 'n ends, just too many things.

Somehow yesterday, Jeff and I got into a conversation about our "stuff". It's something that has been on my mind for a while and apparently his, too, as he was the one to bring up the subject. We both agree there is just too much stuff in our house. It's overwhelming. It's unnecessary. It's a trip hazard! :)

With all these "things" what are we teaching our children? I know what we've taught Will and I'm not so proud. When he breaks something, his answer to it is "Just go buy another one, Mommy." He's not being rude, it's apparently just what he knows. Shame on me! I want my boys to be respectful of belongings. I want them to know that their possessions have value, that money has value and we shouldn't be wasteful. Instead we have been living in a world of replacements.

My friend, Laurel, calls it "living simply"and we have decided to simplify our lives. Our immediate plan is to just declutter one room at a time. I'll probably be doing most of this as I am home during the day and that's ok with me... When I'm in the right mindset, I can get rid of lots of stuff! The other part of the immediate plan is to stop buying stuff. Stop buying just because it's on sale or because I'll use it "later". Stop buying toys to make the kids "happy". (We had a difficult time coming up with a birthday gift for Will as he already has everything!)

When the decluttering is complete, we'll have a yard sale. I really do enjoy doing yard sales. People watching, meeting the neighbors, listening to the kids converse with new people (such sweet random thoughts in those little heads!)... all of this on a crisp autumn morning...coffee or hot cocoa in hand. One of my childhood memories is a yard sale my mom did when we lived in Texas. It was a conglomeration of household items, personal crafts she had made, and a popcorn "stand" for us kids to sell popcorn. I don't know if we sold a single piece of popped corn, but it was fun. Anyway, that's today's blast from the past... back to my stuff...

So, our plan after the decluttering is a yard sale. Then from there, the remain items will probably be posted to the Freecycle yahoo group or donated to our church clothes closet or Good Will. Maybe I'll give ebay a shot with the nicer items. We just need to set a date for the yard sale to give me a deadline.

The money from the sale. What to do? Buy more stuff? No! No! No! We will most likely put it towards new flooring. Our carpet is terrible. We've been in this house for one year and the carpet is terrible. Oh, did I tell you our carpet is terrible? It is! With kids we need to get rid of the carpet. And won't my new floor look great without so much clutter covering it up!? Can't wait!