Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Cleaning Out the Clutter

A Rather Cluttered Victorian Sitting Room

It has filled our house, for WAY too long. Clutter! I get so tired of it. I want to learn how to live with less. I know we don't need as many clothes as we have, and the children don't need as many toys as they have. It used to be that people couldn't go to Walmart to buy a new (or several new) shiny toy(s) for a birthday or other present. Mommy or Daddy would carefully & lovingly craft something, or purchase something that would be useful, like a tool for a son, or thread or cooking utensils for a daughter. Now we bombard our children (& get bombarded) with toys, and oodles & oodles of new clothes. Four of our children share a room, and their closet & dressers are stuffed full, but I don't think it needs to be so.

Some time ago, I began pulling out things that the children don't really wear or use. I put them in piles, and then the piles became too big & I stuffed the things in bags. My plan was to sell them to bring in some extra money to buy things we really would use, or to help out here & there when we needed something extra. But my plate is full & my time is lacking. The things continued to sit, accumulate dust, & take up precious space in our small home. I would be able to list a few things for sale here & there, but I never turned that much of a profit. My husband was becoming irritated. He tried to be patient with me as I s-l-o-w-l-y widdled away at the pile of accumulated stuff. But it was wearing on him. I couldn't blame him.

I had to make a decision. I did not have my priorities in order with this clutter. It was affecting everyone--Daddy, Momma, & the Babies. Everyone had to walk around the clutter that was taking up space in our home. It was taking away peace in our home. So I had to stop worrying about the possibility of making a few dimes off of some stuff, and say goodbye! So that's what I did. Every once in a while some organizations come around our neighborhood to pick up donations. I knew one was coming on Tuesday morning, so Monday evening I got to work. I gathered up about 14 kitchen trash bags full of stuff, tied it up and set it by the curb the next morning! It was great to get rid of all that stuff.

Here is the stuff waiting in the garage to go outside the next day (yes, our garage really needs to be cleaned out too):



Here are the bags waiting by the curb to be taken away:


The next day Husband decided to go through some of his movie collection & tossed a few things, and then handed me a pile (smiles). I thought I was done selling for awhile, but he would like me to try to sell some of his old movies. Well, at least it will be out of our house one way or another.

How about you? Have you gotten rid of anything lately? Let's encourage each other to get rid of things we no longer need so someone else can use them.


God bless you.

8 comments:

  1. I seem to get rid of stuff about every three months!

    It is that time again. Thanks for the encouragement.

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  2. That's great you have a schedule for it, Rosemi! I have an accumulation I'm working on~yep, there's more I can think of to get rid of.

    Love to you :)

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  3. What a good thing you've done Mrs Q ! I'm about to do this myself. I have far too many clothes-mostly from charity thrift stores-which I will donate back to them :-) I do it regularly and always feel better for it. About the homemade toys..one of my best childhood memories is that of my mother making me a rag doll for Christmas. We were not well off and had to make do at times. She used an old sheet and I just loved that doll because Mum had made it specially for me! blessings..Trish

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  4. I get rid of things with the change of seasons. I just got rid of toys that the children do not play with anymore.

    How are you? How's the baby? I pray you are well!!! xox

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  5. I love to declutter!!

    Glad I ran across your blog, nice to meet you.

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  6. Lovely. Glad to hear what you are doing. Nice to meet you as well.

    I am doing okay. I am off antibiotics now, so praying that the infection doesn't come back! The baby is chubby as ever ;)
    And you?

    Thanks for visiting dears :)

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  7. Getting rid of clutter is so important!

    Great job!

    Blessings
    Mrs. White

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  8. I must applaud you for summoning the will-power to do it in the first place! I think is necessary for us all to declutter from time to time. I will also encourage everyone here to read this article on how to get and stay organised!

    Andy
    Contracts Manager
    Cleaning Services London

    ReplyDelete

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