Decluttering – The New Drug
OK, so obviously I have an issue with clutter. I’ve been trying to let the kids keep their rooms however they want as long as their stuff doesn’t enter into family space. That worked out for a while, but then the mess slowly drifted into the living room (and very quickly spread when other kids were over). Needless to say, the mess started to seep into my brain and then my nerves and then my voice. Now I find myself packing up their belongings as if we are about to move. I am just putting EVERYTHING into boxes without filtering. It’s only moving to the shed – for now.
Yesterday I spent 1.5 hours packing up Blake’s room. I tried to find all the pieces of each set and pack them together. I carefully labelled each box with Blake’s name first and then the main items in the box. I want to make the job of going to the shed to retrieve one of these items as easy a possible – it’s bound to happen.
His belongings fit into 10 boxes, nice and neat – done. It was awesome. I was on such a high for a few hours after that. I went into his room several times just to breath in the space. I was glowing. I had the same feeling of adrenaline as when I finished the iron knee feeling strong. Blake was thrilled when it was finished, it was like a brand new spiffy room.
The Next Room Was Not So Easy
Jaida’s room was not so easy. I had a little freak out this morning when I went into her room and assessed the situation. I might have scared her a little, saying that there wasn’t going to be room in the shed for all of the stuff I saw and that she is going to have to get rid of some of her things. She told me that was not part of the plan and she was right. I had to apologize and let her know I would not purge anything, it is all going into boxes and hopefully would fit in the shed.
After 3.5 hours, I packed her things into 10 normal boxes, 5 giant boxes and 3 garbage bags full. I noticed that more than half of this stuff was crafting materials. Mental note, no more new crafts until these ones are either done or given away to someone that will do them.
The process of packing this room was very messy. I found myself gasping out loud and groaning and maybe even cursing a little. I was able to recognize this crazy behaviour and I was able to forgive myself. It was an emotional roller coaster.
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| it was a messy job |
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| Blake’s boxes on the right, Jaida’s pile on the left (space in between) |
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| all clean now |
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| ahhhh, much better |
