De-Junking

Part of my life is junk, I’m sure we all feel like that sometimes. I have too much junk in my home. I’ve always had too much. Living a more simple life means that I need to clean de-junk every day. Sometimes I spend a couple minutes, some days its most of the day.

Everyone has their own rules for doing this, but for me its pretty simple. Some days I go through my closet to see what I really don’t feel good wearing and put it in my giveaway pile. Most days I cull clothes from the laundry that has stains or getting to small for the kids. Other days I get a garbage bag and start throwing away until its full.

I’ve read some books on de-cluttering and de-junking, and a lot of them say to have a box for giveaway, a box for put away and a box for throw away while you de-clutter. I’ve found that this works, but not that well for me. At the end of my allotted time, things don’t get put away. Then I have a box of things in the middle of the room and I have to go pick up kids or something.

I know this may sound mean, but I’d rather just get rid of everything that’s in that put away box. My biggest culprit is pictures. I put them in a box or a basket then the kids decide to go through them, and the never get put in the box or basket again. I’m working on a solution to this, but I think its gonna take me sitting down one day and going through my pictures and buying several albums to put them all in.

Another problem that we have is that there is a lot of books in this house. I hate getting rid of books for fear that I may need them. I have a set of Encyclopedias that my mom bought with all of the year books and science year books that match. I guess that I can donate these, but they are veryÃ‚Â nice looking on my bookshelf, even if they are of little use these days. I’m at a loss at what to do with these for fear of upsetting my mother about them yet again. Bookshelf space is priceless here, and I’m looking for new shelves for my den and possibly living room.

As I de-junk my house, it feels more like a home. Its not bare by any stretch of the imagination, but one day I hope to only have the essentials and a few priceless items from the past. The biggest thing for me is to de-clutter a little every day, and then a lot on other days. One of the biggest motivators is that we are doing some home improvements lately. Nothing big has happened yet, but hopefully I will have pictures of a new lead glass front door next week.

Do you have a plan for de-cluttering your home? Do you go through any certain routine, or have a set time to do things? If you do let me know, cause I’d love to have more ideas and motivation to get the rest of my house de-cluttered.

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