Monday, January 10, 2011
Getting Rid of Clutter!
My house is full of clutter. After 22.5 years of living here I am now drowning in it. It creates chaos, not only in the house but in my mind. I keep talking about throwing everything out, just like I talked about going on a diet and exercising. Well today I filled up four trash bags! Everyday I am going to fill up bags, until every useless item is gone. By the end of 2011 I hope to be rid of everything I will never use again and then start looking for a new place to live.
I would love to move out of this house and start over with everything new. New furniture, new curtains, new carpeting, new appliances…I think I deserve it too. If I won the lottery today, I would find a deserving family and give them the house with everything in it except for our personal items. Doesn’t even have to be a huge lottery, maybe a half million, just enough to buy another place and fix it up.
I have to figure out what kind of residence suits me best. I’d like something maintenance free. A house is a lot of work. A condo forces you to live with other people that can cause you grief, but if there are building problems they are taken care of for you. I thought about a mother-daughter house too. I have two daughters and maybe one of them would like the comfort and convenience of living at home, but with her own private apartment. But if they both decide to move out on their own I am stuck not only with a house, but an extra apartment which I will not rent.
I also have to decide where I want to live. Should I stay in the same neighborhood where everything is familiar to me or move some place else. And if it’s someplace else, where? I don’t want to have to move ever again, so it’s a big decision. I would like for my husband and I to retire early so we could live in peace, doing the things we enjoy doing. We have spent all of the years we have been married trying to make our parents and children happy and now it’s our time. We are still younger enough to enjoy life and travel or pursue our interests.
So, as I lose weight (three pounds so far this first week), I will also get rid of clutter and plan for the future. Hopefully, it will all work out the way I need it too.
If you have any suggestions for my dilemma, I am all ears!
Here’s to scaling down!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
OMG Nina, we so think alike. The clutter thing is driving me nuts. My husband was a major pack rat, he had clothes from way back WHEN! Leisure suits that I told him if he ever put one on I would not leave the house with him. His clothes took up every closet in the house! And not only in the house, outside, in the shops, in the barns, I have bridles of his that are over 30 years old, of course I will never get rid of those. But I too, keep saying, I am going to clean out every closet in this house! THEN I am clearing out that shop! Because you are right, clutter in your home clutters up the mind, it makes me uneasy.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of loading up so many bags a day. I started that last summer, took a whole trunk load of his clothes to the GoodWill. I have put saleable things on ebay or Craigslist and did very well with them. Only problem is, the guy who bought a lot of it, way back in September, has NEVER picked it up, it is still sitting out there, taking up space, reminding me of CLUTTER! The old flat bed truck, still there. The pasture harrow, still there, most of the panels, still there. Paid for, but still clutter.
I'm going to start the bag a day thing, or 2 or 3, until every closet is cleaned out!
I need to de-clutter so bad! When the housing market was good we moved a lot we only lived in a house 2-3 years and by moving we got rid of stuff we didn't need. We bought this house 4 years ago with the plan of staying for good. Only problem is we don't have a lot of storage space. We have 2 acres of land maybe I can just pile junk outside.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck to both of you. I am going to try to throw away as much as possible. I heard a guy on tv say that most clutter is either saved for "memories" or "I may need it later" I will try to give something away too. This type of thing needs to be kept up with every year. He also said if you buy a new outfit then get rid of an old outfit, if that is all the space you have.
ReplyDelete