About every year or so I get the declutter bug. I find myself completely overwhelmed with all that I have to do and unable to see any way out of my dilemma. Usually that leads to some sort of breakdown with loads of tears followed by a Herman giving me lots of extra love and encouragement and an evening out to relax. These episodes are usually preceded by my frustration at being unable to locate some important piece of information and being greeted by mountains of STUFF everywhere I look. I finally feel the need to declare war on my disorganized chaos.
Well, this week I didn't end up breaking down in tears, thank goodness, but I did just get a bit antsy while I was heading into our office area of the house and had to do a bit of gymnastics to just make it across the room. If it were just that room I would be okay, but this is a household situation that has gotten out of control. Seriously. Our dog, Max, is a super duper opossum hunter, and he often finds them wandering the property. He puts his dormant wolf skills to the test and kills the nasty things before trying to keep them as pet chew toys. Well this week he killed one and decided that our living room was a perfect place to keep his chew toy. On evening I was sitting in my room and I heard Hyrum scream like a girl from the front door. That was followed by every other child joining in. It sounded like we were under siege. It turns out that they met Max at the door holding his new, very dead, best friend in his jaws. Luckily they were able to scare him enough that he didn't enter the house, but I am convinced that his little doggy brain told him that there would be nothing wrong with adding one more piece of junk to our growing pile. I became convinced that it was time to take some serious steps to simplify things.
So today I'm beginning a brand new declutter chapter to my life. Granted, I've done this before, and it doesn't always last long. After all, we are a family of nine, and our things add up. But if I keep doing this every once in a while I hope that I will be able to keep the mountain of junk down to at least a small hill. At least I will be able to know where things belong again. This is going to take a bit of time, but I'm planning on devoting at least a half hour a day to getting things accomplished in this area. Hopefully I'll feel more organized and less overwhelmed. Fingers crossed! I'll catch up . . . eventually!
I feel like all I ever do is organize with less to show for it than I'd like. (I secretly wish for a house that is magazine worthy, but we know the probability of that is slim with little ones!.) but definitely go for the "small hill" or else the job gets too overwhelming to handle. I have a book called "Growing Up Organized" you can borrow if you want some inspiration!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to borrow that! I can always use more inspiration to organize better. I think that getting rid of stuff will help make organizing a bit easier. But I have a small suspicion that I am a borderline hoarder, so it is hard for me to declutter.
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