Thursday, April 16, 2009

Vacation!

I'm on "simplification hiatus" right now. I'm visiting with family on the other side of the country.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Movie Collection

I finally convinced the hubs that he doesn't need over 400 movies. We can always rent the ones we *might* watch again. Yay! He has put over 30 movies in our "Sell" pile! I'm so excited!

Thanks for reading!
~Flowerchild~

My First Blog

Is it lame that I'm pushing 30 and have never done this before? Does Livejournal count?
I decided to start a blog after posting a thread in a forum I frequent about starting a journey of simplification. I was and still am, frustrated by the burden of "stuff." My husband and I have so many things that we never even look at! It's really quite sad.
I don't want to pass this materialism, this hoarding, down to my children. I want my son to grow up knowing that memories are something you create, not something you buy.
I was inspired by an article in Mothering Magazine about mothers who are doing the same.
Here is my original post with updates:

March 25, 2009
"I've finally been inspired! Starting tomorrow I'm really going to begin working on simplifying my life. Everything is just so cluttered and it's stressing me out as well as taking time away from my son.

I'm starting an accountability thread in the hopes that it keeps me motivated, know that there might be people checking it out and waiting to hear from me.


These are my goals:

I have set up a cleaning schedule for my entire house (excluding the garage) and every room should be gone through and "simplified" by April 8th.

As soon as it warms up, I'll be out in the garage doing the same thing. I plan on going through all the items that I have determined are not needed and separating them into piles:

Goodwill

Keep to recycle (this will be mostly for old clothing that can be taken apart and used for something else)

Garbage (I'm hoping to keep this pile to a minimum)

and

Sell (I plan on either having a garage sale or posting my items for sale on a website depending on how much there is).



After I am done cleansing the house, I plan on doing some life cleansing. I'm going to get rid of obligations and relationships that are negatively affecting my life and I'm going to be laying out my goals and figuring out how best to achieve them.

Then, the real fun begins! I'm hoping to find a cheap, used sewing or craft table and I'm going to start making my own burp rags, diapers, baby slings, and clothing. Of course, I have to remember to keep my expectations to a dull roar, because I haven't sewn a lot before, so I have a lot of learning to do.

I would also like to start making candles and soap (as I mentioned before), but that will have to wait, I don't want to overwhelm myself. If I try to do too much at one time, I'll just end up sitting on the sofa eating cupcakes.


Anyway, this is my plan. I appreciate you reading it and I really hope that having this thread here keeps me motivated!

Thank you."


Update #1 March 26, 2009:
"Day 1: I took care of the pesky linen closet. It was a mess! Fortunately I only had a small bag of garbage, but I have a lot of towels, sheets, and blankets that I can use to make other things with. It looks great now and it'll be so much easier to keep clean. Hopefully I find the camera cord soon so I can post pics!"

Update #2 April 11, 2009:
"Unfortunately, my goal date has passed. While that really stinks, I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm still motivated! I keep referring back to the articles and blogs that inspired me in the first place to keep it that way.
DS has been teething and has been really needy lately, so I've been either busy or exhausted. But enough excuses!
I did get a few things accomplished. The master bedroom is officially simplified. DH and I have gone through all of our clothing! So many things can be repurposed! I have so much material to work with now! I made DS a pair of pants out of an old t-shirt (pics to follow). They're obviously made by an amateur, but they fit and the legs are both the same length. I just need some practice. Fortunately I found an incredible way to convince DH that he could get rid of all the old t-shirts that he has sentimental attachment to. I'm going to make them into a "t-shirt quilt," this way he can keep his favorites without cluttering our drawers (and without making me cringe when he wants to wear a shirt full of holes out in public).
DH and I also went through our games and got rid of ones we never play or puzzles we've already done. I can't wait to have a yard sale! Our Goodwill pile is small, but our garbage pile is even smaller!!! The only things in it (the garbage pile) are things of an adult nature that we wouldn't ever resell or attempt to give away (gross!) .
It's so liberating to be rid of all this excess "stuff! We created so much space today and I just feel lighter! The burden of "things" is something I guess you don't realize until you finally are rid of it. I feel cleansed to some degree.
I can't wait to move on to the next room! I'm leaving for MI to visit my family, but when I get home we're tackling the garage!"






Thanks for reading!

~Flowerchild~ "