Do you ever feel like life distracts from life?
Lately I have felt like life gets so cluttered with stuff. I love new clothes, cute dishes, and knickknacks from the thrift store. Carter loves guns, tools, and free stuff from campus fairs. It seems like it’s a constant battle to keep these things at bay. To find a place for them all, to put them to use. We spend more time sorting through them than we do enjoying them.
It didn’t used to bother me. I could gather new clothing to my heart’s content without a second glance at the unworn items building up in my closet. Despite the number of dresses or plaid shirts, there is always this desire for more. This was my closet a month or two ago.
But lately something is changing in me. I’m not sure if its the baby in me and the nesting instinct or my yearning for warmth and spring cleaning (I think both). But lately I have thirsted for nothing more than to declutter, organize, and simplify our life. We not only cleaned out our closet, but sent a large garbage bag of clothing to the thrift store. (I have a closet shelf now!) Slowly, but surely, we are ridding our life of the extra stuff.
I can’t describe the sigh of relief every time I go to my closet now. It is the simplest thing. I’ll probably put that shelf to use eventually. But for now, having that clean open shelf is a symbol of clarity and peace. I literally feel 10 times more relaxed every time I look in there and see it.
Not only does it feel good, but it saves me time, too! I can suddenly find (and reach) all my clothes! I still have a bunch to go through. But with slightly fewer clothes, I remember what I do have and actually get to enjoy those items!
To be honest, I probably wear the same 5-7 tops on a regular basis. I really don’t wear much else beside those. So I could probably flush out the other 40 or however many I have and feel so much better and still dress exactly as I do. We’re working our way there. But honestly, it is the greatest feeling.
I’ve since organized our book shelf (which had become a laberynth of all things random- where we set all the items we don’t want to deal with). Our storage closet is a similar case. The blanket closet is the next to come, then kitchen cupboards. Baby’s room, I’m sorry to say, is coming last and this is why:
I just don’t have the stamina to tackle it yet. That thing has been our random storage/junk room since we moved in. We can’t figure out where to keep something, the go-to answer is always in the spare room. But pretty soon we’ll have another little human to use that room and I will not keep my baby in the junk room! So this project is on the list, but probably won’t get tackled for a while… maybe spring break or after this semster. Because it is going to take some serious time.
Despite how ominous it all feels, I can feel the stamina growing inside me! I really think it is baby on his or her way, reminding me every day that I need to make room for all of his or her stuff. And I don’t want to bring our baby into a cluttered world!
“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learnig, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” –Doctrine and Covenants 88:118
This is what we’re working on. A house of God is the goal. A place where the spirit can and will feel at home, where we can have a peaceful place of love. And for me, the detail that has wrung out clearly lately is a house of order. So that’s what we’re working on, keeping up with the others at the same time as best we can.
In doing all of this, it is so easy to compare our progress with that of others. We visit the homes of family members that are so emaculate, whose “messy” is better than our clean. But I just have to remind myself that we are on our own track! And little by little, our personal successes can bring me so much joy 🙂
So here’s to cleaning out our life so we can enjoy each other and the sweet things in life more!
Stay tuned for specific tips and more on our experience with minimalism… and how we are preparing for a minimalist baby!
Please comment below with your own tips and experiences with embracing a minimalist lifestyle.
