I’ve been really motivated to clean out my house lately. In a previous post I talked about purging. It’s almost like my nesting instinct has kicked in again. I’ve been reorganizing closets, purging years and years worth of trinkets, kitchen gadgets and other random pieces of life, and generally keeping things cleaner. It’s really a great feeling.
What has been my motivating factor? Well, for one thing, I’m home all the time. I see the clutter on a day to day basis, and it drives me up a wall. It’s ridiculous to have clothing items for 5+ years and not have worn them for 5+ years. Our mantra: If you haven’t used it, worn it or looked at it in the last year, then you probably don’t need it anymore. Someone else will get greater use out of it than keeping it packed away in a box in our basement. But the problem is that we don’t always follow our mantra.
Have you seen the show “Hoarders” on A&E? If you haven’t, you should check it out. This show is another motivating factor. It’s really quite disturbing. People keep things, or purchase things, just to have them. And then they rationalize why the keep them even though they know that the item in question is really not necessary. “I may use it,” or “it’s in perfectly good condition” are the common phrases heard on the show. And those phrases have been used in my house more than once. My husband and I are both pack rats. My husband likes electronics and cable cords, and I like anything that can be considered memorabilia.
Being home, and seeing the chaos, has given me the opportunity to re-focus on our family mantra. I don’t want to end up on “Hoarders” and I certainly don’t want Little Boy Blue growing up thinking that being a pack rat is normal. So I must continue on in my quest to rid our house of “stuff”.
Goodbye chaos, hello order!
