My word of the year is EXCESS. A number of things have
contributed to this being my focus this year and I’d like to share with my
readers how my progress has been going. First, one of my best friends Kristi is
teaching in Brazil and she mentioned that there are only two kinds of cereal to
choose from at the grocery store and no one complains about this. There are
about 50 kinds at my local Jewel Osco (can you say excess!). The second
contributing factor to my revelation is that my toddler is beginning to really
accumulate possession and our apartment can only hold so much before we are all
literally tripping over playthings. Oddly, Emma isn’t any more or less happy
when she has 10 toys in front of her or 2. She can only focus on one thing at a
time. Third, there is a family at my church that have three kids and they live
in a studio apartment. There is really no reason for me to feel like I don’t
have enough room for three people in our two bedroom apartment. Fourth, Nate
Burkus always says you should have meaningful things in your home decor and
your home should rise up to greet you. How can I make my home happy if I don’t
know what’s in it?!
So here’s what I’ve done in my life to focus on eliminating
the excess and organize my life at the same time. Hopefully you will find
motivation to do the same in your home!
TOYS: Emma has three
small baskets for toys: one in our bedroom, one in the living room, and one in
her room. If it doesn’t fit in the baskets, it goes in the back stairwell which
has three boxes of extra toys (I am ready to cut down on these but at the same
time we like to rotate what’s in the baskets). I plan to further eliminate and
reduce the number and maybe file away the infant toys.
BABY CLOTHES:
Emma has two tubs of outgrown clothes even though she’s only 18 months old. So
I went through all the baby clothes and donated or gave away anything that she
didn’t wear more than twice (lots of hand-me-downs equals lots of clothes that
aren’t quite my taste or the right size for the season but for some reason I previously
felt the need to keep them). Needless to say I donated lots. The clothes
0-9months are now in a vacuumed sealed bag under Emma’s crib.
BABY GEAR: Is now
labeled in a box (bottles, paci’s, carriers, spoons, breast pump, boppy, etc).
I have lent my cloth diapers and baby swing to a new Mama and our giant saucer
toy is in the backstairwell.
THE PANTRY: I
have lots in my cupboards that I didn’t even know was there. If the world’s
supply of food ended, I think I could live off my pantry goods for weeks—I’m
not proud of that. I want to keep things that I need and use and eliminate the
excess. So I have been using recipes that will get rid of those random items
like…two cans of coconut milk! Expired or (dare I say) moldy items from pantry
or fridge are now gone. Our medical supplies are stored in the kitchen and the
shelves are now labeled “Emma, dog, vitamins, cold/flu, and pain” to organize
the contents on each shelf.
OFFICE SUPPLIES:
Our small desk was stuffed full with office supplies and we could never find
what we needed. I re-organized so that there’s a box of office supplies in the
closet next to the desk and in the desk is only a few of the things we need.
Ex: one strip of staples instead of 500, four pens and two pencils instead of
30. The rest is labeled and in the box:
MAGAZINES: I used
to keep magazines that had one or two good-looking recipes in them but no
longer. I rip out the recipe I want to try, fold it up and put it in my recipe
box (which is clearly labeled now). When I am searching for something new to
make there’s only one place I need to go and that’s my box. Neat articles or
pretty pictures get documented on my phone and put on my Pinterest board. I
then recycle all extra paper (side note, we don’t have recycling bins here in
Chicago which annoys me to no end, so I have been sending home tons of
recycling with my family members every time we see each other. So ridiculous.
Okay rant over).
PICTURES: Having
an iPhone has changed our lives in more than one way, but one thing we’ve
accumulated more of than ever before is tons of photos and video. When you have
a video camera in your back pocket at every moment, you can catch every (and I
mean every) moment of childhood you so desire but the result is thousands of
photos/videos of the same thing (I surely thing my baby is the cutest but I’m
not going to print 500 photos every month!). So I have been going through each
photo and video from Emma’s life (and plan on going back even further in our
computer photos). So far I have deleted 1900 photos and you’d never know it!! Scary (and excessive, no?)!
KITCHEN: I went
through my kitchen drawers and cabinets with the term “excess” on my mind and
came up with a whole paper bag for Goodwill (four plastic spatulas and three
soup ladles were hiding in the farthest corners of my drawers. I just don’t
NEED all these gadgets). I know and use what is in my kitchen now.
CLOSET: Emma’s
closet has our extra boxes of belongings. I critically looked at the contents
of each box and clearly labeled each.
Every single box or bin is labeled (and I got rid of lots in the
process):
As for the master bedroom closet, I have critically gone through my entire wardrobe several times (I used to think once was enough each season, but now I know that that is not enough). Every article needs to be used frequently enough to warrant its space. To ascertain if I wear my clothes enough for my liking, I have turned every hanger around. When I use the item on that hanger, I turn it the proper way. In 6 months I can see what I haven’t worn at all and in December I suspect I’ll have even more clothing to donate. Extra purses, bags, bras, you name it, I’ve gone through it. I just don’t need so much! Oddly, I have yet to miss anything I’ve thrown out. And I’m more excited about my wardrobe than I ever have been before because I make sure I LOVE everything I have and wear it often! Here is every t-shirt I own--used to be three times this many:
As for the master bedroom closet, I have critically gone through my entire wardrobe several times (I used to think once was enough each season, but now I know that that is not enough). Every article needs to be used frequently enough to warrant its space. To ascertain if I wear my clothes enough for my liking, I have turned every hanger around. When I use the item on that hanger, I turn it the proper way. In 6 months I can see what I haven’t worn at all and in December I suspect I’ll have even more clothing to donate. Extra purses, bags, bras, you name it, I’ve gone through it. I just don’t need so much! Oddly, I have yet to miss anything I’ve thrown out. And I’m more excited about my wardrobe than I ever have been before because I make sure I LOVE everything I have and wear it often! Here is every t-shirt I own--used to be three times this many:
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH
THE LORD: The other half of this project is that I am focusing on what it
means to be excessive spiritually. I want to walk with the Lord closely. I want
to love Him excessively. You know, like “God will be most glorified in us when
we are most satisfied in Him” (thank you, John Piper). I think when I’m
excessive toward the Lord by excessively giving Him all of me I will be satisfied
that I am doing all I can to invest in our relationship. Not that our
satisfaction in the Lord is anything to do with what we do or don’t do, but
aiming to focus on Him more and really basking in the joy and grace He has
given me. I am accomplishing this by surrounding myself with Scripture (and
posting it around my home), being diligent with my quiet times, playing my guitar
more, praying purposefully with Emma, and speaking about the Lord daily.
There are several exciting things about this venture of
mine, but two major ones are that I feel FREEDOM. Free from clutter in my home,
free from the burden of extra. I like my home more since I have thought about
each item in it and decide keep only what I love. It really feels good to
donate 8 bags to the Goodwill store. I feel happy
when my husband asks “where are the batteries?” so that I can say “In the box
labeled batteries! Hooray!” Let me know if you have any tips for ways you have
organized and cut down on clutter. It’s only March--I can’t wait to see what
June, September and December brings for this project! Goodbye excess, hello
freedom!
Future projects: the utility closet, baby
toys, and continue to go through old pictures. Wha-hoo!
I just love your post... your organization makes me sooooo happy!!! I LOVE organizing... and am currently wishing I had something to organize! Miss you!
ReplyDeleteI have a laundry basket on my living room floor that catches everything I decide to donate. Right now it includes some Christmas ornaments, two pairs of shoes, a board game, a book, and a bag of old towels I'm hoping to donate to an animal shelter. About a month ago, I dropped several books, a couple water bottles, and a travel coffee mug off at my favorite thrift store. I'm afraid to tackle the kitchen as it's pretty much my boyfriend's domain; he seems to need every kitchen tool he owns. I should really go through my closet and dresser as I'm certain I wear less than a quarter of what I own. Amanda, my boyfriend has a storage unit! Not only are we busting at the seams in our one bedroom apartment, but the 10x10 storage unit is packed full of more junk! Eliminating excess makes my day, but how can you do that when it's not your stuff? Well, I'm off to find a sweater or two to dump into the donate basket. Wish me luck.
ReplyDeleteSo, my last comment was a little whiney and not at all helpful. So here's a tip for clearing out the clutter.
ReplyDeleteFreecycle. I will occasionally just scroll through the 'wanted' of the people in my freecycle group. Occasionally they will want something that I never considered clutter, but after thinking about it, I haven't used the bubbler foot massager in two years and it's just taking up space in the closet. I also got rid of a clothing steamer that way (used once for new drapes, but got moved to three different apartments without a second use). Also a 7 season set of DVDs of my favorite TV show which was added to Netflix 6 months later so I only missed owning the DVDs maybe twice in six months.