Focus

Whew!  I've had a busy week...finding a car to replace our Altima that got totaled, lots of organizing sessions (yay!), substituting at our son's school, late-night board meetings at said school, trying to keep up with the daily tasks of my "Clutter-Free Living" Challenge, and fighting off a cold.

Life likes to keep us busy, doesn't it?!

We all have busy times--and then the dishes pile up, and the laundry, and the dirt--and it's OK.

I'll be the first person to say that you feel better when your home is uncluttered, but sometimes we just have to let that stuff go to get through the day.

Go to bed at 7pm, let the laundry go one more day, leave the dishes in the sink.

And then get up early the next morning and get to work!

When our bodies and minds have reached their limit--we need to just stop and take a minute to reset. Hurried work is sloppy...and who wants to re-do everything they just did?

Give yourself permission to take care of yourself (for once!) and then come back to the tasks well-rested and focused.

Living Small in a Big World

Disclaimer: I have a dream to live in a tiny house one day.

If you're not sure what a tiny house is, check out this house.

I daydream about one tiny bin of Legos, that must be meticulously picked up and stored away before we can eat lunch (because the table used for Legos is also the dining table/art table/folding laundry table...), and cleaning the entire house in 15 minutes, and packing for a trip to visit family in PA in 10 minutes--because the total amount of clothing in our house would fit in the suitcases we'd take for a week-long trip.

I know, I know, this sounds completely ridiculous to some of you!
Who would ever want to live in less than 500 square feet?

This girl.

And I'm working on my husband.  Oh yes, he will live tiny one day...he's all for it--once the kids move out.  But they're 9 and 4--and I don't want to wait that long!  I overheard our 4 year old telling a friend one day, "When we live in a tiny house, we won't have this anymore" (about one of her toys)...

The kids play more with less toys.

We downsized from 1400 square feet to 900...and we have extra space in our house!

We wiped out over half of the toys--and simplified them into categories (books, art stuff, blocks/marble run, dress-up, animal figures, and Legos--my nemesis!).

We have 2 closets: one that holds all of the kids' clothing, and the other that holds all of the adult clothing (with a dresser in there).

Our kitchen only contains the essential dishes and bakeware.

The only bathroom contains items that are used on a daily basis...and that's it.

Our living and dining areas have simple, useful things in them...and yes, they acquire clutter when we get lazy and don't put things away, but when the house is clean and things are in their places, these areas are free of lots of "stuff."

Now, am I advocating for everyone to sell all of their stuff and live in the shed out back?  NO.

I'm suggesting that you become aware of the many, many ads that are designed to make you think you need their product--that your life will be happier, easier, faster, better--if you buy it.  Once you become aware of the marketing that's used to tell us we need to have something, you can begin to resist it.

To live with less clutter, stop buying more stuff.
Then get rid of things that are broken.
Then donate the items you no longer use but are still in useable condition.
Then sell the items that are still in great condition (and may still have tags on them!).
Then be honest and get rid of things that you're keeping "just in case" you might use them.
You're not.  Let them go.

And slowly, over time, your home will only contain the useful, beautiful items that you appreciate...and you'll resist buying things to make yourself feel better, because you'll see that things don't make you feel better.

They require work.

You have to work to make the money to buy the things--then you have to take care of the things--then you feel like you need to replace the things with newer versions of the things--and the cycle repeats itself.

Free yourself of non-essential stuff and see how good it feels.

Impermanence

I attend a group meditation practice here in Colorado Springs.  We talk a lot about the idea of impermanence...that things are in a constant state of change.  This has helped me in my life in more ways than I can count, and is especially helpful when it comes dealing with an attachments to things.

Every living thing will die at some point.  
We all know this, it's the only thing certain in life besides taxes, right?

But it's hard to apply this same theory to our stuff, since it's not "living"...

If you can apply the idea of impermanence to the items in your house--to everything in your life--then it's much easier to deal with letting go of them.

Dropped your favorite coffee mug and it shattered into pieces?
Lesson on impermanence.

Lost your favorite blue shirt somewhere?
Lesson on impermanence.

Got rear-ended and the insurance totaled your car?
Lesson on impermanence.

Your 15-year-old dog has come to the end of her life?
Lesson on impermanence.

Obviously, we have stronger attachments to certain things, but if you can remind yourself that everything comes to an end at some point, it makes it easier to allow yourself to let go of the clutter in your life.  Like each season having a beginning and an end, so too do the items in our lives.

If you're feeling overwhelmed with too much stuff in your house...take a walk through it and pick out some items whose time have come to an end in your life.

Shopping in Your Closet!

That's the trick to getting rid of unused clothing...go shopping in your closet!

Go through every single item and ask yourself: "If I were shopping right now, would I buy this?"

If the answer is no...get rid of it!

Downsizing your wardrobe can be a very difficult--yet freeing--experience when it comes to simplifying your stuff.  You think about how much you paid for that shirt (shoes, pants, fill in the blank)...or the special occasion you wore that dress to (10 years ago!)...or when you'll fit back into those jeans...or that suit that you'll wear again--someday.  

But if you look at what you actually wear--today--you'll see that it's a very small amount.

The are many benefits to owning less clothing:

• More money in your pocket
• Less laundry to wash, dry, fold, and put away
• More closet space
• Less time to get ready in the morning
• More mental clarity
• Less clutter!

You can take baby steps and challenge yourself to get rid of one piece of clothing per day for one month (or week!) and repeat it until you feel like you've pared it down to just what you wear.  

(There is some truth to the saying "we use 20% of our stuff 80% of the time"!)

Or, you can just go big right out of the gate and take the 333 Challenge!

Whether you get rid of 10 things or 100...I promise you, you will feel the space that it frees up in your life...both physically and mentally!

I have yet to do the 333 Challenge, but I did severely reduce my wardrobe to this:

(This is my clothing and my husband's...but his shoes are under the bed.)

Keeping a Newly Decluttered Home Uncluttered

So...you've decided to get a handle on all of that clutter that's occupying your counters, spare bedroom, garage, closets...and the list goes on...

But once you get a space organized, you're finding yourself constantly going back through and putting things away after your kids, spouse, family members, friends, everyone....why won't any of these people acknowledge that you've turned a new leaf and that things need to be put away?!

Well, let's talk about how things used to be:

Where did the remotes used to live?

How about the newspaper and junk mail?

School stuff?
Receipts?
Shoes?
Keys?
Toys?
Books?
Clothes?

If the people who are not putting things away have seen where these things used to end up... they're just stuck in the habitual pattern of not putting things away.
It takes time to form a new habit, but with patience and practice, it can happen!

Try having a discussion with everyone in the household and talk about why things will be different--what it looks like now--and what the expectations are for each area.

Then make sure to follow those same expectations yourself.

Write yourself reminders on sticky notes to tidy up before you walk out of the room.
And ask your spouse to help model the expectations for the kids.

Pictures are wonderful for younger kids...take a picture of things put away, then hang the picture in the space, so they have a reference point for how it should look.  Label bins with pictures so they know what goes in them.  Positive reinforcement goes a long way with kids...point out when they've done a great job cleaning up after themselves!

Remember: progress, not perfection.
Be gentle with yourself and your family members...slow and steady wins the race :)

Tackle Your Laundry Piles Once & For All!

Ahhhh laundry...clean, dirty, wet, dry...it never ends!

Sick of having piles of laundry everywhere?

Would you like to sit on that chair/couch/recliner again?

Do you have trouble finding specific things you want to wear?

Do you procrastinate on washing, drying, folding, or putting away?

All four?

There is one simple solution to end your laundry misery: do one load every day.

That's it!  For real.

One single load of laundry--start to finish--every day...and no more piles everywhere!

Of course, there will be times when you just have to do more than one load of laundry
(returning from a trip, a kiddo wet the bed, guests used lots of towels, etc), but for the most part,
you can get your system to run smoothly doing only one load at a time.

I've been doing this for several months now and it's working out quite nicely!

I was the "never put it away" laundry slacker.  

I LOVE to hang laundry on the clothesline to dry...so washing it and hanging it outside was not the problem.  Getting it down and putting it away?  Forget it.  I can't even count how many times I left a load (or 3) hanging out on the clothesline.  Oops.

If I limit myself to only doing one load per day--it gets washed, dried, folded and put away!  Hurray!  

I also severely downsized my wardrobe, both kids' wardrobes, and partly my husband's

(still working on that one!)...but that's a story for another post :)

Eco-friendly clothes dryer...and my mini-meditation time.

Resolutions...

I saw a meme that said:
"I'm going to open a gym called 'Resolutions' in January...and turn it into a bar in February."

What is it with this "let's start 1001 new habits on January 1st!"??

How about we just think of the one thing we'd really, really like to become a habit and take baby steps to make that happen...

If you'd like to get more organized, a phenomenal way to start is commit to putting things away.
(if the items don't have a place where they belong, then work on that--one thing at a time!)

When you get into the habit of putting things away, not only do you prevent the piles of clutter,
but it snowballs into getting rid of things that are consistently out (and need put away),  other
family members also putting things away, and no need to scurry around trying to shove things
out of sight when unexpected guests arrive!

Of course you'll have busy days, sick kids, and houseguests...so this won't happen 100% of the time. But every time you do put something away, it's one more time you're sticking to your resolution.

Happy New Year!
Here's to a less cluttered, simpler life in 2015!