clean up, clean up...
When was the last time you did a major cleanout of your house? I don't mean hiring a cleaning company to clean behind your couch and dust those fans that are typically ignored, but the type of cleaning that entails rummaging through every junk drawer and whittling it down to useful goods, donating every extra spatula, and selling those shoes you had to have and haven't worn once kind of clean out? For me, it's been a while. When we moved back to Tequesta from Lynn Haven three years ago, Patrick did the packing and loading without me, so a cleansing of "stuff" didn't happen for his fear of getting rid of the wrong "stuff" and meeting my wrath. He did pretty well, but I do remember the glass soap pump he forgot to pack that was next to the kitchen sink....
Here we are, two kids, two houses, a few storage units, and four moves later (we moved in with family for a bit while we were waiting on buying our house we're in now), and we have accumulated an abundance of things.
Our trip to Georgia provided an eye-opening experience for me. Living in a tiny one bedroom, one bath loft for almost two weeks was freeing! When the kids napped, I was able to clean up the entire kitchen and living area. I kept up with the laundry by doing two loads a day (one cloth diaper and one clothes and/or towels). Here, it takes me over an hour just to clean the floors, and my six (yes SIX) baskets of laundry are overflowing on a daily basis, begging for attention and stealing time away from enjoying my children.
We came home from that trip and I was immediately overwhelmed.... I felt like I was suffocating from the extent of things around us and I had this consuming desire to cut back to just the basics. Where does one start when the desire creeps in to minimize their life? I, obviously, went to Pinterest and found a few good articles and methods to start slowly incorporating into our lives.
I really connected with the idea of a capsule wardrobe. The way the author of the blog Unfancy puts it, is: "a capsule wardrobe represents more time and energy for what really matters... more money for our dreams + helping others ... and more contentment and happiness." Isn't that what I am going for? Less time worrying about what to wear, less time doing laundry, less energy put into trying to fit into clothes that fit great before I had two babies 14 months apart.
To me, going through my closet was a huge priority. It was crammed and seemed like a great place to get the party started with reducing the amount of things in my life. While I haven't quite made it down to 37 pieces, I love the simplicity of less. I honestly don't want to stress about getting down to 37 pieces like an "official" capsule wardrobe, but following the basic principles has allowed me to clear up closet space in three of our closets in our home, and even allow for some breathing room. I'm still working through pairing down, and still searching for a few key pieces... like every time I try to find a pair of shorts in my dresser I can't find "the" pair, and I could use a new pair of jeans, considering I got rid of all of them except a pair of hand-me-downs. I haven't bought a pair of jeans since the boot cut days. How do I even buy jeans these days?!
Another great article I read is How to Stage your Home for Living. As someone who styles events as a business, you'd think I have the staging part down... but sometimes it takes reading some motivating words from someone else to start kicking some styling ass. I want to be surrounded by meaningful pieces, or pieces I love and can build a whole room around. I sold a few pieces of furniture that never really belonged. I bought some paint to paint some pieces that are perfect but aren't the right color. Mainly, we paired down to have more empty space.
My husband and I have also been on a "finish project" stampede. We (finally) paid someone to finish painting the outside of our house and touch up the inside - it'd been 8 months since we started the outside project of painting, and it'd been three years since we first painted the inside - it was time for a touch up.
Declan's room got a good cleansing of paperwork - really Declan just has a crib in the guest room, and all of his belongings are in the nursery, aka Harlee's room. The guest room/Declan's room become a storage place for the extra - dresses that I haven't worn in years, papers I haven't looked at since I stashed them in the closet, ugly odds and ends that needed to be removed from the premises - so all of that went, or was sold, or donated.
This task is a major undertaking and still isn't finished. It's difficult enough on your own, but when I'm trying to perform a miracle of cleaning out an entire room during a nap time and it (obviously) doesn't happen, a few stolen minutes here and there add up to the overall good of the household. It's really wonderful to be surrounded by the things I love, that have meaning, or that I find beautiful. Anything extra I find stressful and unnecessary... it's freeing when all of that noise is removed and you're left with what makes you happy.
And our end game? We have some travels in mind...
