I Wouldn't Have Considered Myself A Hoarder

Nothing grabs me like a good blog post title, so when I was glancing at one of my friend's blog roll, and I saw the title "40 Bags In 40 Days {Lent 2014}," I thought I'd check it out. I was intrigued. And then I read that this was about de-cluttering and I basically didn't have to go any further. "I'm doing this," I announced to Dave, after I'd already gone through my clothes and the kids' clothes, and had collected five bags and two boxes to pass on to other people or to take to the thrift store.

And then I went through the kids' rooms looking at their books and toys, and also the stuff on the top of our closet. The basement storage area was not immune to my discerning eye.

And then I convinced Dave that we didn't need to be keeping all the empty boxes below.

Nor did we need to be keeping three fans, Play-Doh toys we hadn't used in a year, and some random electronics.

I like to think of ourselves as living lightly in this world. I don't feel like we have a lot of stuff. And then I look at all these pictures and I realize we have way more than we need. Although we haven't gotten to forty (we're at about 31 thus far, although we won't be able to go through our garage until after we get back from  New Zealand), we have passed on five bags of clothes to other families, donated sixteen boxes to the thrift store, recycled about seven bags of stuff (boxes, papers, etc), and thrown out three pairs of old boots (all with holes in them) and one potty with a really ripped up seat. We even donated an entire bag of empty egg cartons to Sam's class for craft supplies. Please tell me why we thought we needed eight empty egg cartons sitting on top of our fridge. I know, I can't explain it either.

My question is WHY ON EARTH did we have this stuff sitting around in the first place?!?!?! I mean, didn't we just move seven months ago?

It has been really good for both Dave and I to take a look at everything we own and to ask ourselves, "How much of this is really necessary?" And it's been good to realize we have so much, that we don't need it all, and then to share it with other people, whether through passing it on or by donating it to our local thrift store. I do find it a little scary how incredibly happy it makes me to walk through formerly cluttered places and smile about how much empty space we now have. And all our boxes are finally unpacked from both of our moves. Yay!

I've already talked with one friend about helping her de-clutter her house and I can't even explain how happy and excited this makes me. I might have a slight problem :) However, if any of you ever need any de-cluttering help, you now know who to call!