Conquering Clutter

I have had it up to here (holds hand way above head!) with clutter. Today I picked up a billion little army men hidden underneath the sofa and chair, under the table, and under my feet as I walk (ouch!). I picked up play food which should have been upstairs next to the kitchen set, not all over the office room floor. I picked up books that haven't been read but were laying all over. I realize that this house is a mess because of all this stuff.

I've realized this before. As a matter of fact, conquering clutter is an ongoing feat. For me it is a daily challenge and I have to admit that we still have much more than we need. I have a huge bag ready to go to Goodwill that I purged from closets this week and hope to have another bag or two before we drop them off. You have to admit, it feels good to drop a bag or box off at Goodwill and walk away a little lighter. I'm saving the better items for our spring garage sale and am boxing all that up am storing it at the bottom of our closet and the large items have been going in the basement. Am I bad for not donating the really good stuff to Goodwill? I hope not...I have more of an incentive to purge my favorite stuff if I have the prospect of making a little money from it.

It is not just me. Recently, the majority of the blogs that I have read have been saying the same thing. It seems that everyone is a little unhappy and disgruntled with the mass of stuff that invades their homes. Stuff does not make one happy, but stuff can definitely make one very unhappy and very stressed out.

One blog that I have been reading for awhile is Walk Slowly, Live Wildly. This woman and her family are now traveling in an RV across the country. She has a delicious decorating style but what really impresses me most is their lack of stuff. They have the basics that you need and not a whole lot more and their RV looks roomy, inviting, and very much like a home. You can go through some of her old posts to see all the small space living that they have done and how impeccable and organized the spaces were.

This motivates me to clear out what we don't need and only keep what we truly love and want. My new goal is to get rid of at least one thing every day. Set it aside for a garage sale, stick it in the Goodwill bag, or throw it away. Today I threw away two plastic cups from the cupboard that no one seemed to use. Poof! Gone! It's a small step but left a space in the cupboard that is encouraging and it felt good to stop hanging onto something that we may someday use.

Another goal of mine is that for one thing we bring into the house, we need to get rid of one thing. That way we will never get overwhelmed with toys, books, or clothes again.

I have worked on this before and need to step back up and conquer this clutter once and for all. It will make for a much more peaceful home environment if we don't have to take care of items in the home that we don't need or even want.

For those of you just starting clutter control, a great resource is FlyLady. You can sign up for their daily e-mail (I recommend the digest version or else you will be bombarded with all the e-mails) which has suggestions on which zone to clean and what to work on that day. It is really great for the beginner or someone like me who has fallen off the wagon.

I have also gotten back into my cleaning schedule,(I will post more about that in a future post) which does help in staying ahead of the game.

Do you have any clutter cutting tips that have helped you? Please share!