The other day I told Emma and Michelle to clean their room, it was so bad I couldn't even walk into it. (No pictures, I was so disgusted). A pile of laundry went to the laundry room. The next day it was back to chaos. Once again I told them to pick up. Emma got frustrated and said that she had too much clothing. I told them to whittle their clothing down to 15-20 outfits and we are donating the rest. Emma was not happy with that. Michelle who actually matches her clothing went and counted. She had 18 matched outfits so she was happy. (She has a lot of clothing in the laundry room that I will bag up). Part of the problem with Emma is she is at the end of the hand me downs. Everyone hands down to her and Larissa and Michelle take good care of their clothing.
I think about it, my kids have more than 20 outfits. They could wear a different outfit for each day of the month. They don't, they have their favorite outfits that they wear frequently. When I look in my closet I see the same thing. Most of it gets worn very infrequently. I have been working in my closet, bagging up shoes and clothing that hasn't been worn in a while. It is amazing how hard it is to get rid of perfectly good clothing that looks new. I have a bag sitting in the closet and when I try on something and don't like the fit or can't find something to match I put it in there. It is helping some. I still have a long way to go.
This declutteirng is hard. So many things are attached to memories or were gifts from specific people. Or, it is something that I might need one day. I see the same struggle with my kids. Toys that they rarely play with or that are missing parts they want to keep.
In the girls room I decided that we needed to move the bunk bed into that room to free up some space and to offer less "stuff" space. They were stuffing all kinds of things under the beds. The bunk bed needed moved across the hall. My husband and I thought that we could move it in two pieces and not take it apart. We got the bottom section without too much trouble. It was during the movement of the top piece that my husband declared his love for me. OK, maybe it was more of a "you know I have to love you for helping with all this furniture moving"! We took off the door for a little more wiggle room. Still it wouldn't go. Finally with sweat dripping off of our noses we determined that we had to take it apart. In the end we did get it moved and we eventually got the door back on. Their room looks much better and I am doing daily checks on it so it doesn't get carried away again.
Thankfully it looked this good when the GAL came and looked at all the bedrooms.
What started all of it, laundry basket with laundry, toilet paper, hangers, and even baby wipes.
Anyone else have too much? Anyone successfully downsize? If so what is your secret? I need to know since I am still decluttering.
Just send me your extras :) :)
ReplyDeleteI did the "turn the hanger around until you wear it trick"
I know there are some outfits I avoid. I probably just need to pass them on.
And I do wear the same five or six shirts over and over.
I realized we have too much when I look in the garage and all the junk drawers... Ordering a roll off dumpster thing to quell the horde.
ReplyDeleteThis is what drives me nuts: Papers. I just spent a few hours today shredding old documents. I don't mean documents that are five years old, we are talking about 10 and 20 years old. Why did I save them to begin with?? For some reason I think that I really am going to be interested in what my phone bill was 20 years ago or maybe there was a phone number on there that I just had to have and that sometime I will write it down. Or there is always the electric bill - do I really think that I will want to know the number of kilowatt hours fifteen years later?
ReplyDeleteThere is always the other stuff too...you know...the pictures that my 15-year-old colored back when he was five and I just can't part with it. And finally, my 15-year-old, who makes things. Don't get me wrong, I am so impressed with his creativeness. The action figures he prints off and tapes to cardboard that he just has to have. The Popsickle stick houses he builds, elaborate and hot glued together. The cardboard America's Got Talent stage he makes pretending to be a judge. All of these treasures that my little boy who lives in a 15-year-old body, builds and piles in a corner until another day. I'm so thankful for his creativeness because there is no way I can afford to buy all the toys he would otherwise require. Still...trying to find the right place for some of these creations can be challenging. A replica of our 12 room two story house finally ended up in the trash because it got played with too long and too hard. Christmas present?? More Popsickle sticks and glue sticks. : )