Last Night…

April 30, 2010
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Just a random indicator of how far I’ve come in just 3 weeks:

I hosted a spontaneous Mary Kay “party” in my kitchen with 20 minutes’ notice on an evening where John worked ’til 9pm.  I only had 10 minutes or so to “tidy up” after putting the kids to bed by myself.

Wonder of wonders-

(1) After “flying solo” with the kids all day for three days, I was still happy and feeling fine.

(2) There wasn’t really any mess to be embarrassed about.  At least not in the front room and kitchen.

This was a first for me.

All this time I’ve been beating my head into the walls here trying trying trying trying to “clean,” working day after day and not making much headway at all…

Here's what it felt like

Here's what it felt like

No wonder.  I was going about it completely backwards!  I was cleaning from the top down, from the surface in.  I was trying to get it to “look” clean and beautiful without actually getting rid of the stuff junk in the way.

That didn’t work very well.


Turns out, this huge problem was a pretty simple fix.

I got rid of the stuff junk (in 1 room) and here’s what I found underneath:

cleanliness

order

simplicity

function

beauty

I have always hoped for it, but never seen any evidence that I could achieve this.  Even when I hired someone to help, we’d revert very quickly back to mess-clutter-difficulty.

I thought I had no “interior design” skills.

I thought I didn’t know what “style” I wanted in our home.

I thought I had poor abysmal housekeeping skills.

I thought a million degrading, demeaning thoughts about myself…

And let me publicly thank my Sweetie for never even once complaining, and for loving me anyway through all of this.  You are amazing. I married up.

The problem was none of those things!

We simply had too much stuff junk, and the real problem was the difficulty I had in letting go of it.

Ha!

I laugh now, but it was a long road to get me here.  And it’ll be many days of shoveling our way out of it before we are free from the clutter completely.

Thanks for hanging in there.  I promise to get back to our funny-and-cute-kids-family-updates-normal-blog when the worst of the shoveling is over.

Maybe.

I’m not sure what kind of life is gleaming for us at the end of this tunnel…

But I'm sure we're going to love it.

But I'm sure we're going to love it.

7 Responses to “ Last Night… ”

  1. The Lazy Organizer on April 30, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    What a wonderful feeling to find out you weren’t the problem. The stuff and the culture you were raised in was the problem!

  2. jb on May 1, 2010 at 1:22 am

    Strip it all away to reveal…

    cleanliness
    order
    simplicity
    function
    beauty

    Marvelous description of what is lurking under the junk!

  3. Misty on May 1, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    We have just decluttered our home better than we ever have before. It was so hard for us, emotionally speaking, but we feel great! It’s amazing how free we feel!

    Good luck on your journey!

  4. Kimberly on May 1, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    I love this story! I’m so happy for you!

  5. Linn on May 2, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    I’m coming to Utah in a few weeks to give a seminar (at a Women’s Conference) on organizing and simplifying your home. It sounds like I should turn it over to you and save myself the travel time. :) Way to go!

  6. Megan on May 3, 2010 at 8:52 am

    it really is looking great. keep up the good work. i’m jealous because i’m still waddling around in super pregnant land, and i keep getting these decluttering/nesting vibes and then i get down to pick stuff up and i can’t get back up!! lol. plus we are probably moving soon, so i also have this intense desire to pack and throw stuff away and i just CAN’T right now. i do what i can, but i just keep telling myself to wait till after the baby comes. sigh. come baby!! anyway, i’m jealous, and i’m right behind you, give me a month or so…

  7. Mr. "John" Smith on May 3, 2010 at 10:11 am

    I wrote a lengthy comment but realized it might be better on my blog, so as to not hijack yours.

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