So many thoughts about life are "a-whirling" around in my head. Where to start?
A couple of weeks ago I did some serious spring cleaning (6 month purge). I removed from our house bags and endless bags of stuff. I'm talking a MASSIVE house purge. Actually it was all good stuff. In the fall I had done a serious purge and gotten rid of the junk. What was left was the good stuff. However, I realized that just because it has value doesn't mean it needs to sit in my house collecting dust. So I got rid of our excess. I got rid of the things that while good, were beyond on needs and wants. For example I removed clothes, shoes, books, games, decorations, sheets, towels, kitchen utensils, pans, etc. If we didn't use it or if I had say 10 spatulas when I could get by with 4 I put them in my thrift pile. (Which was the size of my living room).
Now the kids can close their dresser drawers. They each have a couple pair of pants-nice ones, church ones, and jeans, 3 or 4 collared shirts, 5 or 6 t-shirts, 1 pair old tennis shoes for working, 1 pair of nice ones for regular, etc. etc. I have two brown skirts, two black skirts, 2 pairs of p.j.'s, and on and on.
"That book was nice, but gee I haven't read it again in 5 years. I think I'll give it to the thrift store for someone else to read and benefit from. That's a nice classic. It's an easy read. Not a favorite or one we really need to study. I'll chuck it and then when I need it I'll just get it from the library." Thus some of my thoughts.
I found myself desperately wanting to get rid of our excess to bless others lives. In return I found that I was freed up! I have less to dust, less to straighten, and less to put away. I'm not overwhelmed when I open a closet now. There aren't 8 extra pairs of twin sheets ready to fall on top of me since they are just shoved in the closet. I know exactly where things are. I am finding that I'm taking better care of the things I have. When it's toast I'll just replace it because I know what I actually need!
I'm not overwhelmed with cleaning. I'm freer to spend time with the kids and really play and really learn. Very empowering. I challenge anyone to see what they have in their house that they really don't need. It's like our house had a bi-pass. That drastic. Do it, I dare you. (P.S. My husband and my kiddos LOVE it, and we haven't missed a single thing yet).
Other thoughts. We recently - a month ago- stopped buying milk, bread and cereal from the store. You see I have more time and I'm not overwhelmed. So we've made lots of homemade cereal and lots of yummy whole wheat bread. I've always made hot breakfast and bread, but this is serious now! Sandwiches on home made bread, that's a new one. We are cooking a lot more things home made and we are going to the store a lot less. Olivia made home made whipping cream today just because we can.
Go green? Well, I think I might have the bug a little. Over the last three weeks we have started walking everywhere. Yep that's right. (That helps that going to the store to buy milk-who wants to carry that home?) That's including church. I need to state that we live in a very rural town. So it's not like things are super far away. Our piano teacher lives two miles out of town. I've been teasing the kids that they better work up their muscles because in a month or two we are hiking out there baby! Yesterday I had to help at a funeral and it was windy and rainy. I also had a salad with dressing to get up to the church. So I figured it I could walk then I would be able to walk in almost anything. So I did and I survived it. Go figure? Two months ago I'm sure I wouldn't thought I wouldn't have made it. So no scheduling in the treadmill to "work out" I'm just going to stop being lazy and work out all day long. "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked and Walked and Walked....." The kids and Alex are super troopers with this as well. They think it's kind of fun. They might not have liked the rain storm yesterday though. What do you think?
I recently read a post here that has really got me thinking about the "stuff" that we surround ourselves with. I love her ideas about having kids do real life things. I'm anti-craft. I've always thought they were pointless. I'm so happy that someone is validating me!!! haha So we make, build and create things that serve a purpose in our lives. That includes real life math problems and real life books that teach real life problems. Sewing projects that are gifts. I'm loving it you know. She also has some other really good things to say. Check it out.
That's enough for now. I don't want to shock anyone. But seriously let's think about it. We are the laziest people (Americans) in the world. We drive everywhere, buy everything, do busy work worksheets, and make trinket junk. Let's ask ourselves why? We were born to create and serve. Let's remove the junk from our lives so that we can fill the full measure of creation!
Thoughts please. : )
6 comments:
I've been doing the same thing!!! I've never been a good housekeeper and after 11 years it's wearing on me. We just did a clothes purge. I have 2 large black garbage bags (the 30+ gallon size) of clothes to give away. I packed another large Rubbermaid tote to store in the garage to rotate in a few months.
I did the same with their toys. It takes them about 5 minutes to clean now, where it took them over an hour and lots of fighting and threatening. I did put some of them in the garage because they were too upset to get rid of them altogether. I'll rotate them in a few months, but each time I think some things will disappear until it's manageable again.
We can't really walk to where we need to go, but good for you!
I am now trying to get rid of some books and homeschool stuff. That's hard for me. They are really good things, but like you said, sometimes we don't need all of them. Just because something is good doesn't mean I need to clean it up all the time.
I've been looking at the Kindle recently to see if that is a way to get rid of more books. If I can access them on a Kindle, then I don't need a hardcopy. I do feel the need to have books in the home because we move so often and usually don't have access to good libraries. We're talking rather pathetic libraries.
I'm also trying to plan my menus and organize closets and get rid of as much as I can.
I'd love your bread and cereal recipes! I've been 'seriously' making bread for a month or so, even grinding the wheat, but my recipe is just good, not great. I would LOVE to stop buying cereal at the store. They go through almost a gallon of milk and 2 or 3 boxes of cereal for breakfast (only on Sundays).
I'm proud of you. I think it's funny we were doing the same thing at the same time. Keep it up. I'll keep you posted on how things turn out!
Way to go Deanna!! Your books that you gave us have already blessed our lives. :) You remind me of me when I was pregnant with Abbie I got rid of so much stuff. I am in the spring cleaning phase right now and I hope to get rid of stuff as I'm cleaning. I'm tired of "managing" so much "stuff" Thanks for the motivation. I will have to read your post a couple times in the next few weeks to keep me going. And there is no way that I would have walked to the church in the wind with my salad. You are awesome. I figured I did enough running in the wind during track. And we always have cereal for breakfast, probably always will. But good job with all your cooking. love ya my sister
Your post motivated me to get rid of even more things! It's so liberating. I feel like I'm finally beginning to see what an education is - learning and living in truth - reality. I love it!
What a great post! I am on the path, just still have a few kinks to get out! ;) Thanks for the motivation!
I've been wanting to go through our "stuff" and I think this week we are going to get serious about it. I've noticed that Lindsey likes her dolls, which are creative since she plays house with them. Taylor likes to draw and Michael loves balls. All other toys will probably go. I need to go through their clothes, though, and that is hard for me to do.
BTW, we have really enjoyed the games and books that you passed on to us, thank you very much.
Ive just been doing the same over the past few months after finding Lara Gallhagers blog. For me its been a process. First I cleaned out enough to completley fill our front porch for a charity pickup, but then a few week later I did it again. And then yesterday i started at it again. Its like peeling the layers of an onion but without the tears. ;-D I honestly dont know how I have so much stuff as my house never look that cluttered but its amazing to me to learn how little I want to keep. It so freeing. Calmer somehow.
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