And the Shed, and under the beds, and from that awesome teetering pile in my bedroom that has no where else to be crammed. Yep, it's time to clear out some crap. I did have a catalyst in this sudden interest in ridding myself of unwanted treasures. My youngest daughter's 2nd grade class is having a rummage sale to help them learn about economics and they are asking for donations. All the money raised goes to one of our favorite local charities (Me Fine Foundation) and whatever isn't sold is going to be donated to the same charity's thrift store. Awesome I thought. I can get rid of some stuff and it goes to help a great cause as well as teaching kids some valuable lessons. The only down side is that they gave me a week to do this, and I thought I had two weeks. Rad. So last night, my 7 yr old reminds me that everything has to be turned in today. I hadn't even started yet!
Now, we needed to this anyway. Trying to achieve our goal of going of the grid is going to require a LOT of down sizing. We don't plan on taking much with us when we move and we already had too much stuff anyway. So I chock this sudden de-cluttering up to part of unprocessing our lives. Do I really need all of their old lunch boxes? And what about that cute outfit that doesn't fit anyone? Or how about all of those VHS tapes that we already have on DVD? Fact is, no. I don't need any of it. This stuff is stacked up around my house closing in around us like a tomb of stress and excess. This is exactly what we are trying to rid ourselves of.
So I came up with a quick fix. I might not get rid of all of the clutter this way, but I made it fun, got the kids involved, and am GREATLY reducing our mess! I told them that we all had 2 hrs to go through the house and we were all going to find stuff to donate. They each went through their rooms and closets while I hit up my room and closet. We have 3 LARGE trash bags full up with everything from colorbooks to sippy cups to a dvd/vcr player... Ok, make that 4 LARGE trash bags, 2 boxes and a stack of board games. Sheesh, we had a LOT of fodder! The girls feel awesome about all of their hard work and are excited to be helping a great cause, I am thrilled to get some space back in our house and a little less clutter from our lives. The best part is that up until today, In my youngest one's class, only one person had brought in about 5 things. I think we may have made the rummage sale!
So the small step today is to continue to unprocess your life. Find one thing around your house that brings you anxiety when you look at it and it seems daunting to fix. Go for it! Or go through you house, in two hours, and see what you can come up with that is merely clutter in your life and donate it to a worthy cause. You will get the relief of having it done and out of your way and the satisfaction that you are making you and your family healthier. Stress is as much of a poison as gmo foods and artificial sweetener. It's true that you will never be able to fully rid your lives of stress, that's completely implausible. But by diluting it, you can help remove some of the poison that is already in your home.
Today I hope you find gratitude.
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