Decluttering Challenge

Good morning!!

 I decided to challenge myself this month to the decluttering challenge where you get rid of as many things as the number of the day. So on May 1st you get rid of 1 item, on May 15th you get rid of 15 things and on the 31st you get rid of 31. It gets progressively harder.  

    Knowing that life gets busy and there are some days I just don't have an extra minute or two to spend on decluttering I do allow myself to work ahead. I keep track of it by tally marks on my wall calendar. So this morning I have already decluttered 5 items. I marked 1 in today, 2 in tomorrow and 2 on the 3rd (which I obviously need to do one more for that day).

   It is pretty simple and shouldn't be that hard. It doesn't have to be a "Big" item to count (such as a piece of furniture or a pair of pants). This is a great time to go through any piles of paper/mail, magazines, craft supplies. I don't know what builds up in your house but you do. 

   I just wanted to touch quickly on the motivation for decluttering. Here are some reasons that I do it:

• It saves me time in the long run. Having less stuff means I don't have trouble finding stuff so much and I don't have as much work when I clean.
• It helps me to have more mental peace and clarity. Getting rid of clutter really helps to reduce the feelings of stress in our household.
• It is easier to have company on short notice.

This is embarrassing to share but this is my big motivator this month. My office closet is in desperate need of some TLC. Especially with wedding season starting. My flower fridge is in this closet (to the right) and a lot of flower supplies are too. I had my first wedding of the year (see top photo) this past weekend and it was really frustrating to have to deal with this mess while I worked. Craft supplies are probably the thing that I have the most trouble decluttering so I am hoping and praying this goes well. :-)

I will try to post some updates this month on the challenge but I also have a lot of other things that I would like to blog on -including a recent family trip to Ireland ! - so we will see what time allows.

Happy decluttering!

   

Cleaning and Decluttering - A Fun Saturday Activity

   I was blessed to get to stay home all day today! A friend came over for a little while this morning which was really fun but after that I had nothing scheduled for the day. I really enjoy having days like that once in a while. It doesn't mean that I don't have plenty to do but I am not on a tight time frame and I enjoy that luxury to kind of randomly work through my to-do list as I feel motivated. Today's main project was to work on going through, cleaning and organizing our storage room. It had gotten a bit disheveled and cluttered. Also there were boxes that I wasn't exactly sure what was in them. I was able to get a handle on exactly what was in there and I am really happy about that. I was also able to get rid of quite a few things that we didn't need and that always makes me happy. 

 We no longer have anything sitting in the middle of things. We have extra space on the shelves, things are grouped together better according to how I use them (Ice skating, my wedding business, camping, skiing, etc) and we were able to clean out another cupboard in the main room where we are going to only put things that we are fine with our AirBnB guests using. 

All in all it was a very satisfying Saturday project.

  One of my life goals is to only have things that we find beautiful or useful and to be aware of what we do have so that we can use it or give it to others to use. Things just left in storage somewhere do not generally improve with storage. The majority of them decay in some way over time. I think if God has blessed us in some way with things we should do our best to use them well or give them to others. Being aware of what you do have can really help in preventing of buying new things and henceforth wasting money.

 Obviously looking at my storage room you can tell that I am not a minimalist but I really like a lot of the concepts that they talk about. I firmly believe that having too much stuff will cause you to waste money - between buying it in the first place and then having so much that you can't find what you do have when you need it and then you just buy it (or something like it) again.

   When I clean out a place like this the other take-away I have is to feel extremely grateful. God has blessed us with so very, very much which is evidenced by all the things in my storage room. Not only do I have enough things for me but I have enough to share with others. 

  How do you like to use a Saturday at home?
 

November Goals Report

I made my goal of getting rid of an item (or many times a lot more) for the number of each day. That was a total of over 475 items. That is pretty impressive when I calculate it! I did take pictures of pretty much every day but I didn't get around to blogging and I decided that you probably didn't need to see pictures of all my rejects. I did choose to share a few pictures to highlight some of the areas that I went through. I did do a lot of cleaning out in paper areas so that doesn't tend to make as big of visual difference. There is definitely still areas in  my home that could use some decluttering. I am super thankful to have gotten to the areas that I did however - some of them especially were good to work through mentally.

Cupboards were one area that I did clean through. I found French dressing that was outdated. It isn't a surprise - only Ken liked that dressing and he hasn't lived here for nearly 2 years. I hate to waste food and wish I would have thought to give it away a long time ago but at least it is out of my cupboard now.

I had a chance to make some Thanksgiving Cards and envelopes from things that I already had on hand. I was able to go through my card making scraps some with that project and then give away the results (which took them out of my house) and burn leftover scraps.

The pictures above and below were really good for me to go through. It was letters that Ken and I had written when we were engaged, lots of cards that Ken had given me and cards we had been given for our wedding (and I think I am sounding a bit like a hoarder now - I did have a cute little chest that they had a place in) as well as other various paper things from our wedding and bridal showers. I dealt with some sorrow when going through it but mostly it just felt good to get rid of it.

I had a burning time last night to get rid of a bunch of this stuff.

I am pretty excited to have gotten my new will all witnessed and notarized yesterday and so I burned up the old one. 

So, all in all the decluttering goal went well and was quite helpful!

Goal number 2 was to have a really low spend month. I would only buy groceries 2 times - at the Amish Bulk Food store and then one other time when I got needed things for the Thanksgiving. I did also mention that I might need to buy catfood. We did need it and I was planning on buying it but when I went to Aldi to get Thanksgiving stuff they were out of the cheap catfood so I didn't get it then and I found some bones and old meet in the freezer so I have been making cat food instead using up old food. 

At the Amish store I did spend $252.47 but I got a lot of baking supplies that will last throughout the year as well as over 12 pounds of cheese (which will last quite a while - I freeze it). 

I did also have that one trip to Aldi where I spent $34.47 to buy a turkey and a couple other things. I may have cheated a bit in that I did buy a gallon of milk and some whipping cream that we didn't actually use for Thanksgiving itself.

That is a long way from the lowest amount I have spent on food in a month but with so much of it being stored away for the future, I am quite happy with it. 

This month has been one of my favorite cooking months in a long time. I have just loved the challenge of making do with what we have and enjoying some pretty delicious meals in the process. Whenever there seemed to be something lacking I would think through what we did have and what else might work and then I would just get overwhelmed with the abundance that God has given us. We are incredibly blessed and are a long way from going hungry - even if we didn't go shopping for a while. :-)

These pictures are from a couple of yummy breakfasts that we enjoyed. By the way we were blessed to be given 5 dozen eggs from a couple of friends and my parents. That was a lovely addition to our diet. We would have been baking with flaxseeds for eggs if it weren't for those gifts.

This is a Brazilian Cheesebread that our exchange student from 2020, Debora, introduced us too. It has a different texture but I think it is super yummy. Here is a recipe that seems to be the same as what I use.

   I have had to make do with deodorant and toothpaste (I had some but discovered it was giving me canker sores. I was going to make some but haven't gotten around to it yet so I have just been using baking soda - it works). 

  I did also buy gas this month. I spent $69.73 along with a $25 gift card. 

  I did also spend some money on Entertainment. I spent $36 for Aaron, Megan and I to go to a musical at the community theater. I was reminded later that I could have checked on ushering to see if I could have watched for free (as they called me to see if I wanted to do that later on) but I don't regret spending it. We enjoyed it. I also spent $5.39 for more texts on my Tracphone. I guess that is kind of entertainment too :-). The other expense I had this month (besides the normal electric, internet/phone, etc) was $40 for going out to eat TWO times! I rarely go out to eat but for some reason or another the kids really wanted to a couple of different times (once on a Sunday after a busy Saturday and the other time to satisfy the cravings of my pregnant daughter, Mara. The adult children paid for themselves but I did pay for Megan and I. I am putting that in the entertainment section too but I know that is rather cheating. :-)

  Over all it was a good month of setting and achieving goals. What I am really excited about is the progress I have been able to make on paying off my mortgage early when I work to save money in our day-to-day expenses. Today I was able to go in and pay the principal of the Mortgage payment on two extra months. Paying just those two months of principal only today saved me $800 in interest. That is pretty exciting to me. I am now 14 months ahead of schedule in paying it off. Having both that and saving up for going with my kids on a mission trip is a good motivator for me in being careful in my spending. It pushes me to figure out and take the time to pack a lunch each morning when I head of to work instead of running and picking something up in town. It pushes me to try to use what I have instead of buying new - and I have a lot of fun in the process. 
 

I am hoping to share with you soon more about what I am doing to save money and make extra money. Is that something that you are interested in?

I hope to share my fun goals for December in this post also but it is time to head to bed so I guess that waits for another day.

Some Challenges/Goals for November

    I am in the mood for challenging myself. I think that is a good sign. I love a good challenge but the last couple of years have seemed challenging enough with working outside the home and being the main provider for the family, being in charge of all the upkeep of our home and just dealing with all the emotions and challenges that come from going through a divorce myself and having children who had to deal with that as well. I am so incredibly grateful to God for the way He has taken care of us physically, spiritually and emotionally. I'm also super grateful for the body of Christ - the church who have been there for us in so very many ways as well. I can truly say that life is beautiful and I am ready for even some of those made up challenges! Yeah!

   One more thought on challenges. I think why I enjoy them so much is because they often put restrictions on me that force me to think outside the box and to be creative. Because I love to be creative that is super fun for me that it pushes me in new ways.  I am really interested to know - among those reading this - who of you enjoy challenges (it could be in finances, cooking, physical exercise, art, etc) and who like to avoid them at any cost? Or where are you in between? I would also love to know your why. Thanks so much! I'm a curious person and I love to hear why people think and act the way that they do.

  So, my double challenge for this month is:

1. To declutter things from my home and get rid at least as many items (and yes an item can be a single sheet of paper, this is the prime time to do some heavy paper decluttering - it builds up so easily) as the number of the day. Today is November 2nd so 2 items were required.

Here is the photo from day one. It was pretty easy to be an over achiever and I have a broken ice cube tray,  a driver's Ed book (I actually got rid of two of them-they are in my van to go to a friend who wants them) and a unlabeled bag of seasoning that was in my cupboard. I was able to go through a couple of kitchen cupboards which was nice.

Day 2. Cleaning my desk is an easy way to come up with some extra things to get rid of.

Getting rid of clutter is a very important goal for me. When my house gets to messy I tend to get stressed more easily as do some of my kids. It also wastes time. My over all goal is to "Have nothing in my home that I don't know to be useful or believe to be beautiful". Things just sitting out all the time become silent to do lists that are telling me that I need to do something with them. I have worked on this goal for years and I have made progress but there are also some times of digression. I have never made it to perfection (and I may never) but any progress is good.

Challenge 2. To not buy anything this month except for One planned trip to the Bulk Food Store (where I can buy things- primarily, if not entirely, food), needed Gasoline to get around and if I need additional food for the Thanksgiving Holiday (but I will try to use what I have if possible). I also may have to buy cat food but this will be a good motivation to try to get rid of some kittens. Also, I will try to keep it pretty limited but I am allowing spending on experiences. Also I can give away money if I want but not buy things to give away - if I want to give gifts I can make something hand made or give something from my gift box. I will also still pay my Mortgage (plus extra), electric bill and things of that nature.

 I am planning on following it up with another very low spending/buying month in December. I am excited to tell you about that later.

  I will try to give updates somewhat regularly so that you can keep my accountable. Feel free to join me if you like! :-)

  Oh, if you would like another challenge... Do you have a will made yet? I am excited to report that I got a new one (needed since I went through a divorce) done tonight! Well I do still need to round up some witnesses and take it to be notarized but it is primarily done. I used FreeWill.com to make it and it was quite easy. That is something important off my to do list!

  I would love to hear what things you are working on accomplishing in your life!

   

 

Enjoying Finishing Projects

   As much as I miss getting to see my church family and other friends I am truly enjoying the Stay-at-Home time as well. It is wonderful for giving me more time to finish projects. I had fun finishing a couple today and I thought I would share them with you.

I had a big plate (shown upside down in the picture above) that Megan had given to me and I thought was really pretty but it cracked. It was no longer able to be used to eat with but I was able to glue it back together again so I figured that I could use it for decoration. I had some little plates (which I had more than I needed of for eating) that matched it that I decided to decorate with as well.

 I had hung this picture that Megan drew of our family on our dining room wall. I liked it but this wall really needed a little more color to spice it up.

 See....

 These plates have been sitting around ready to get fixed for a hanging for a couple of months. First I made little wire loops and glued them on (with hotglue).

 Then I cut pieces of felt and firmly glued it on over top the bottom section of the loop.

 Now just to hang them. I wish I would have sought ideas and inspiration before hanging them as I think I could have done a better job but I figure I can think on it and fix it better later. I kind off think it would be better with 5 up there in a little less regular pattern. What do you think? I am still enjoying them being up and the beautiful blue and white that they add to that wall.

 This basket has been in my office closet, partly done for some time now.

Today I finished it and am very happy about that. Lord willing, I am going to make more and store my small scraps of fabric (sorted by color) in these baskets.

  It was fun to get these projects done, it just motivates me to get more projects done. How about you? Are you getting old projects done on these quieter days? 

Enjoying the Simple, Quiet Days

    Though we are a homeschooling family we still normally have a fair amount of coming and going at our house. We have church twice a week, the boys and Debora were in Theater this Spring, We had volunteering at the nursing home and at Rotary, Music students coming and also us going to friends and friends coming to us and more. But like everybody else around the country (and actually the world) that came to a screeching halt recently. The last play practice was on the 11th and the show has been delayed. Debora's last day of school was the 17th. The 15th was our last time at church and that was a pretty light crowd. Rotary's last meeting was the 16th and it was super small. We have mostly just stayed at home.

     We love being at home but to be perfectly honest we also like going places and we love to spend time with others. So though it hasn't been completely easy (as I am sure you can relate to) it has been a time of peace and joy and lots of fun too. We are trusting that those making the decisions about the stay home orders have done their research and are acting wisely. Most of all we trust that God understands exactly what is going on, and as long as we seek His will He is going to work things out for our good.

   So I thought I would share some of the fun things we have been doing....

 Celebrating! For St. Patrick's Day we wore green, decorated with green, ate potatoes, Irish Stew and Irish soda bread. For the first day of Spring we also set the table prettily and then did some more decorating such as my mantle below.

Painting. The girls and I had fun painting one night and now have some decorations for our mantle this spring.

Outdoor Time. A lot more time has been spent outside. Here the boys were checking out the river and how it was opening up as it came to us. They are out on the ice but standing over top of a log that is down in the water.

Music. Debora is learning to play the Ukulele and others of us have been creating quite a bit of music as well.

Log Splitting. Aaron has made it nearly all the way through the pile that needed to be split.

Recording Music. In the last post I shared "Consider the Lilies" the result of this recording session. Megan had a cold and had lost her voice so she wasn't a part of the music making. Aaron, Debora and I did that this time while Jonathan with some assistance from Megan did the recording, the filming and the editing.

Reading. Lot of reading has been done which is really fun. Megan has been catching up on some old magazines.

Campfires. They are peaceful and fun.

Kayaking. Yes it is still quite early but Aaron tends to be impatient about that. He uses ski poles to push himself in the kayak across the ice and then has fun paddling in the open water.

Story Writing. Megan has been doing a lot of writing lately and her current project has been a long story set in Finland that she and Aaron have been working on together.

Sewing. Debora learned to sew making cloths masks for a local place that was wanting them. She and I had fun working together on that. I am modeling one down below.

Swinging. The boys had a lot of fun this week creating a new, big swing. They have a platform that you climb on and then jump off while on the swing and the swing has to catch you. It is a bit of an adrenaline rush. That has been a highlight of the week.

I like these pictures that I caught of Aaron. Jonathan made a video of the swing in use too:

So that is some of what has been going on at our place lately. I would love to hear from all of you and hear about the fun things that you have been doing as well.

Quarterly Report on Spending and Trying to Live Waste Free

 On January 13th I had shared some goals and dreams that I had for 2019. I had hoped to report on those goals each month but that didn't happen so we are going for the quarterly report now. :-)

 I chose the backpacking picture above because in my efforts to simplify, create less waste, spend less on stuff and more on adventures and memory creating I have thought a lot about our backpacking, biking and canoeing trips. Those are so good for learning what things are really essential and what isn't.

I had quite a few different goals that I blogged about but this post will be focused on reporting on these particular goals:

   

• Creating as little waste as possible.
• Not spending money. Exceptions would be giving, traveling, paying for experiences, paying our mortgage, insurance, utilities and anything else of that nature, buying gas (though I hope to drive less and bike more) and purchasing necessary food and consumables like toilet paper and soap. I can barter for other items or use money earned at a consignment shop to get other items there. I will try to grow or forage just as much of our food as possible and we will work as hard to use up food that we have rather than buying. Also - things will come up -such as a wedding. I will be doing my best on this one (in trying not to make a lot of needless purchases or create trash) but will try to use common sense and not be overly fanatical when it comes to this event.
• Eating local low or unpackaged food just as much as possible.
• Continue to get rid of 25 items each week and sort through 5 spaces each week. I am happy to report that I did accomplish getting rid of 25 items a week last year plus way more. I almost cleaned our 5 spaces a week but was 7 spaces shy for the year.

First, a financial report:
These are the areas that I have spent money on. This is from my receipts and checkbook. I didn't monitor Ken's spending though I may report on a few things that he spent money on. I am the primary grocery shopper in our family. He did go once during this time to get a few things that he wanted that I didn't have on hand. Just to let you know - it was my goal to spend less but I don't think I accomplished it all that well so far. I'll keep trying.

Groceries

January Total: $174.04

February Total: $292.62

March Total: $450.99 (There was a nice little chunk of this that was food that I stocked up for Mara's wedding reception in May)

Gas

January Total: $28.37 (I am guessing that Ken filled up the van sometime during this month - normally I fill up the van because I drive it the most - but this total seems pretty low)

February Total: $102.78

March Total: $155.62

We have done a lot of running around this year. It has largely been because the kids are in Theater. That will be over this weekend so hopefully our gas spending will go down.

Medical

I failed to mention earlier on that this would be an expense that we would also be dealing with. Mara, like I told you earlier, has been experiencing a lot of health problems so we are doing what we can to figure out her problems and resolve them. Our insurance is also high deductible so most costs are being paid out of pocket.

Quarterly membership for Mara at TrueNorth Healthcare $225 (this pays for all her doctor visits there)

Glasses for Mara: $64

Lab work $40

Various Shields that are supposed to protect us from EMFs $250 (this is something I bought that came in plastic and is not consumable - so it didn't follow my plan for buying this year but I decided it was worth it).

Chiropractor visit for me $45 (I did a silly fall when skiing this year and hurt my tail bone which threw my back off. I fell at the top of the hill when we had stopped to visit.)

Supplements (mostly for Mara) $110.58 This is another area where I broke my zero waste rule and most of these came packaged in plastic in some way.

Entertainment/Eating Out/Experiences

We did go skiing as a family twice (minus Mara who doesn't enjoy it so much and was off on a trip to Kansas). We also went out to eat once both times we went. The first time skiing cost $94 for lift tickets for the 5 of us and rental for one. The second time I think we paid closer to $250 for the day of skiing (at a bigger place.

I also took Megan and Aaron with their 4-H group and paid $16 for Aaron to ski and Megan to tube.

Shooting sports with 4-H for Aaron was $40 (to help pay for all the ammo he uses)

After opening night at Theater we went with a group to Perkins and spent $18.53

This evening Mara, Jonathan and I went to the Theater with some extended family and watched "Unplanned" - a moving film that I recommend. It was $5 per person today so total was $15.

Miscellaneous 

500 lbs of Chicken Feed: $113.30

Flowers for gifts for my actresses on opening night: $9.71

Piano Tuning: $40

A new Iron that was needed as we work on dresses for the wedding (the old one was leaking, not working well and staining) $17.96 - not in my plan for buying this year but since we needed it for the wedding I did.

This post does not go into the money we spent on our trip to the Virgin Islands. I have another post devoted completely to that here.

Decluttering is going well. There is still a lot of room for improvement but I have cleared out at least 25 items each week. I can see progress being made and it is exciting!

Trying to live zero waste is going okay. I still have room for improvement but I have made a lot of steps towards creating less waste. I guess I will have to report more on this in the future as it is getting late and my trash picture is not uploading. :-)

Toys - How do we deal with them????

This (past now - this took me a while to write) month as most of you know has been focused on decluttering and simplifying. I know this is an area that can be a challenge for many families with young children. It has been a challenge for us at times too. 

I had fun going back to my photo files from 2007 to find pictures for this post. I had fun looking through the pictures from the year (hundreds I would suppose) and these are basically all of the ones that I saw that had toys in them. That tells me something - toys weren't really that important for us to have fun together. There were a lot of outdoor pictures, pictures of us working together, riding bikes together, reading and much more but just not a lot of toys. We never have been truly minimalists when it comes to toys but I know that compared to many others that we are.

The picture above shows what we are hoping to avoid when dealing with toys. We don't want them to be so overwhelming and tiring to us that we fall asleep while picking them up. Okay, I am kind of being silly there. I doubt that any of you parents have actually fallen asleep on the job and it is actually rather cute when a small child does but still I am completely serious about trying to make toys more manageable and not overwhelming.

 I think it is wise to think through the type of toys that you would like for your children, maybe even make some specific guidelines. Then  you might honestly visit about your vision/ideas with grandparents or others that tend to get your children toys.

Here are some of the ideas that I have had about toys:

• I don't like noisy battery powered ones. We have only had 1 or 2 beyond a few remote controlled cars that I can remember. I didn't get any of them for my children. The remote controlled cars tended to break and the other 1 or 2 I tried to move on out before long.
• We tend to like building toys. But that doesn't mean that we need every type of building toy. Our kids were given wooden train sets that they enjoyed quite a bit and we have kept for when company comes over and for future generations. Legos/Technic have long been a big hit at our house but we didn't keep the duploos around very long at all when we were given them. We have had tinker-toys. My kids have very much enjoyed Lincoln Logs at other homes but we didn't get them for them as they didn't need those too and they were a special treat to play with elsewhere.
• Other creative toys are nice too. Dolls have been much enjoyed by my girls. When they are little they simply play with them, as they get older they sew clothes for them. Dress-up clothes have been very enjoyed at our place as well.
• I personally am not fond of a lot of plastic to I tend to move out plastic toys more quickly.

So, what sort of toys are enjoyed and loved at your place? What would you like to get rid of and not have as part of your lifestyle?

How can we stop the flow of toys that can easily take over your house. Honestly we have never had a huge issue with this but I have many friends that do. Here are a few ideas that I have but I would love to have feedback from others on this issue.

• Don't buy toys for your kids. If they already get oodles of toys from others than you be the first one to stop the flow. We did buy some toys (mostly things like Legos) for our children but we didn't have a huge flow coming in and we knew what would work. We didn't do it very often.
• Not every holiday and definitely not every trip to the store calls for a new toy. Also, do you really want the junky toy that comes in a happy meal?
• Don't host traditional Birthday Parties where a bunch of small children come bearing gifts. When you do this you are just asking for an overload of toys. If you want to have a party maybe you could request no gifts, a book or a consumable gift - I don't know. We just chose never to have that sort of party.
• Visit seriously with the grandparents about your desire to live with less (and thus in my opinion to create more grateful children). We have never had issues with our children's grandparents on the toy issue but I have so many friends that do. If you are a grandparent (or aunt or uncle) that is reading this blog please be super sensitive to the desires of the parents of the child that you are giving things too. An overabundance of toys can make life very overwhelming for children and parents - you don't want to make life harder for your children do you?
• Don't participate in big gift exchanges at Christmas. I know that is easier said than done but I have been very thank-ful that we were able to work things out in that way for our family. We don't do gift exchanges with anybody past our immediate - living in the house- family. And that gift exchange is all required to fit in our stockings. That means you can give very many toys.

Here are just some other random ideas that have helped us in dealing with toys.

• We didn't feel like our kids needing to be "playing" or being entertained all day long. From the time they were very little they were helping me around the house according to their ability. When they are little that is often what they really want to do. Encourage that love of work and it will be a blessing to you (and them) when they are older. My sister recently shared this article and it articulates in a neat way they joy of letting your children help you when they are little. When your children are helping you they don't need as many toys to try to keep them busy all day long.
• Don't have all the toys in one spot. I have found it to be helpful to have a toy basket in the living room (quick and easy to pull out for little ones- whether my own in the past or visitors), then maybe a tub of legos and another for the train-set and cars in the boys room, Then some dolls and dress-up clothes in the girls room. In my opinion having them in different places like that can make it harder to get all dumped and spread out at the same time. And I would try to have them only empty one thing at a time and then pick it up before going to another.
• If you do deal with toys scattered everywhere but are reluctant to actually get rid of items I think the rotating method is a great idea. Box some up for a while (maybe all the ones that didn't get picked up when you told them to pick up) and you can bring them out several months down the road and pack up some different ones.
• Do have your kids pick up their toys after playing. That is just a really good life lesson that you don't want them to miss.

I think the questions "Do they love it, do they use it, do we have space for it and does it fit our lifestyle" are good ones for toys as well. It is easy to get sentimental over toys or feel guilty about getting rid of something that was given to them but I think it is good to just be honest with ourselves about whether it is really used or not and then proceed accordingly.

  I hope that possibly these thoughts can be helpful in some way. I started writing this days ago but life gets busy and I had some other deadlines (like preparing for homeschool co-op and sewing costumes for a play that starts next week) that had to be met so blogging took a bit of a back seat again. October is over but I still have some things that I want to share on Simplifying and decluttering so I will probably still be writing on it some. 

Good Questions To Ask as You Declutter

As I was going through things in my office today (and many more items got moved out - Yeah!) I listened (kind of watched) some decluttering videos on Youtube. There was one done by Clutter Clarity that had some good questions to ask yourself.

 As you look at any item either that you already have or that you might be thinking about getting, ask yourself:

• Do I LOVE it?
• Do I (or will I) USE it?
• Do I have SPACE for it?
• Does it fit my LIFESTYLE?

If we can answer all those questions honestly it will help us to gain insight into whether it is a good thing for us to have or not. These seem very helpful to me, I hope they are for you as well!

Make Yourself Mend It

So, I have finally really gotten started working on my office today. It feels good but also almost embarrassing. As I go through things I feel like people might think I was a hoarder if they were just looking in my office. I save so many things.

 Now, I can easily rationalize my saving. I am an avid crafter. I love to make things and I do it all the time. My family (the girls especially) also love to make things. They also do it on a very regular basis. We buy crafting supplies pretty much never. We almost always use what we have. We have been given so many, many craft supplies and we also love to repurpose things - so I save old jeans, old sweaters, old t-shirts, etc...

 That is all well and good but it can get out of hand. And my office closet (and even the office itself to some extent) was proof of that. I need to weed some things out. So I am. I got rid of over 100 items in my office today and there is still a long way to go. Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day at working on it.

  But I have been thinking on something else - also related- that I wanted to discuss. That is the subject of mending. I love to mend things. It is so fun to see something that was broken/not good in some way working well once more. Whether it be clothes or other items it is nice to see a life extended. But we get busy, it can be so easy to set aside that mending for another day, that day becomes a week, then a month, then a year, then a decade. Maybe none of you have done that but I know I have done it for years and quite possibly a decade before. By that time if it is clothes it quite possibly doesn't fit anymore or is out of date. And if it is something else it has just been taking up space unusable for far to long.

  I know for me if it needs mending I don't want to give it away and foist it onto somebody else, that just doesn't seem nice, but I hate to see it fill the land fill either. But I think sometimes we just have to draw the line and say "It is okay to through things away sometimes."

  So, since I have pretty much determined this month that we were no longer keeping things that needed mending I have been mending things like crazy. :-) It is fun to have various items in working order again. There is still one thing (a broken can opener handle) that I haven't figured out how to mend but I am working on it as I really like that can opener. It cannot just go back in the drawer to wait a while longer. And I want to take finished kitchen photos soon so it needs to get off the counter so the time to get it mended is running out. :-)

  I think setting some deadlines about mending is helpful. Also, just look at the article really honestly and ask "Is it really worth my time to mend it?" Will we really use it that much? Maybe I should just get rid of it.

   I would love to hear your thoughts on this and whether you also have historic mending piles.

Verses to Think About

 As I have been busily decluttering, cleaning and organizing I have tended to think about stuff quite a bit. I have come up with many thoughts and opinions but I want to make sure that they line up with what the Bible says. So I was studying into that a little today and I thought I would share a couple of verses that caught my eye.....

Jesus was in a crowd and was asked to resolve a dispute over an inheritance, he declined to do that but he did say this:
Luke 12:15 "Then He said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

I think the big message here is - there are more important things in life than things. How much we own is not what makes our life good or not. More important than the things is whether we are being greedy or whether we are showing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Another verse that has a great message and one that I believe is applicable to nearly every American and so many others is this:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."  

God did give us everything for us to enjoy. That is a huge blessing from Him. But along with that enjoying of what He has given us He wants us to use it to do good, to share with others generously and help them out. When we have a Godly mindset our focus will not be on having a stockpile of treasures here but rather treasures in heaven. We never, ever, ever want to put our trust in our possessions. Anything could happen to them and they would be gone tomorrow. Our trust needs to always, always be in God!!!

 I do truly find that considering God's word can give me such a better perspective on stuff.

• How can I use what I have to His glory?
• Will this slow me down and burden me as I try to work for Him?
• Would somebody else be blessed by this?
• Am I holding on to things out of wrong motives?
• Do I look at every possession in my house realizing that it belongs to God, I am just a caretaker of it?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this!