A Realization

     Have you ever been overwhelmed with the amount of things that you need or want to get done? I definitely have. Almost every time there are piles of clean laundry to be put away, dishes piled up everywhere needing to be washed or toys scattered across the living room floor, I instantly become overwhelmed. I then find myself laying down to relax because I feel overtaken by the amount of things that need to be done.

     So, I realized one day that avoiding these messes doesn't make them disappear. Only getting up and doing something about it will change what's there. After putting in the effort to do one task a day, it has really helped lower my stress levels and keep our home a little more tidy. I say a little because as of right now, there are SO many things left to do. I plan to keep up with doing at least one productive thing a day. So far it's helped motivate me to do even more.
     No time to waist, I have more to do tonight, now that my baby is asleep. I'm going to clean up the catio (our cats-patio) because it looks like my cats had a crazy party last night. Everything is knocked over.
     Thank you for reading,
                                       Danika

     

Clearing The Clutter

So, if you read my first post called "Living Simple", you would know that I have been on the road to clearing my clutter filled life for the past 7 months. As a result of having so many things without the proper space or home for them, we had to get a garage space to hold our clutter which is 1) an expense we can't afford and 2) an eye opener to what we have accumulated and not been using.

Here is a look into our garage at the beginning of this year.

As you can see, my husband and I have a ton of plastic storage bins; I counted 42 in all. That was the result of our first attempt to cleaning up our clutter. We packed up whatever was laying around our place and put it in the garage so we could have more space inside our home. Since then, I have slowly made progress in going through everything to determine what to keep, sell and give away/donate. I have given away all that I can of my donation pile and had quite the success in doing so. Now I'm left with my sell pile and bins of stuff to keep. I know I will have more downsizing to do after our upcoming garage sale but at least SLOW process is better than NO progress.

Living Simple

Living simple is a lifestyle goal that I have been working toward for the past 7 months. I had experienced the simple life for a brief time in late 2011, when my husband returned from a year long deployment and I had moved states to live with him. We had only our needs and a selection of wants that were all being used. 

Looking back, I was a lot more relaxed living this accidental minimalist lifestyle. I had a set morning and night routine that was easy enough to keep things tidy without a load of stress. I loved my mornings, waking up, feeding and watering our dogs, our cat and our plants before making my own breakfast.

Little did I know that this wouldn't last for long. When we returned to our home state to visit, we brought back with us a vehicle jam packed with "STUFF", mostly mine from my life living with my parents. This "stuff" I didn't need. It had no home and therefore it became clutter. More things became more stress, and over the last 3 years, I had brought more and more things into our life that didn't have a home, mostly things that I had taken from my childhood homes and brought into my adult home and life, along with new things as well. 

I'm working toward regaining a simple lifestyle by pairing down, organizing, learning about myself, letting go and living life doing the things that I love. I know living a more minimalist lifestyle will allow me more freedom of the mind and free time in my day to day life. These past 7 months have really been an interesting journey and I still have a long way to go. I'm going to share my journey with you and hopefully there will be something you can take from it that will be helpful to you in your life.