Introduction and Background
The home I grew up in was full of stuff. Collections, hobbies, sports equipment, heirlooms, tech equipment, magazines and piles of unsorted mail. You know, the stuff of daily life. Times all that with a family of six and children ranging across a 13 years age difference and it’s a lot of stuff. Add onto that family members who like to collect and save things and have a hard time letting go of those things. It all equates to a house filled with a lot of stuff. A lot of which is just junk.
I literally would dream about how I would approach organizing everything. It was a fun mental game of strategy I would play with myself.
Well, I finally got my wish of cleaning out, decluttering and organizing my family home almost two years ago. I moved back to help my elderly mother manage the upkeep of the home after the passing of my father. She and all of my siblings all love our home and wanted to keep it in the family.
It’s been a long process so far and we are nowhere near finished yet. I’ve realized the mental fatigue of making all those decisions about what to keep, toss, donate or try to sell. I’ve also recognized my own *ahem* possible hoarding tendencies. If left to their own devices and unchecked, it might turn into some sort of tv episode.
Except, I also don’t think it would. And the reason I don’t is because of the state of the house I grew up in and my “rebellion” against it by being neat, tidy and a user of a label maker.
Also, I became aware at some point in my adulthood how living in a junk drawer caused a lot of mental anguish and so it’s important for me to have a visual aesthetic that is beautiful to me. Sometimes that looks like a slightly chaotic bookshelf - but artfully so - but mostly it looks like order and having a home to put things away. So I don’t have to look at them.
I’m still a collector at heart. And I love my stuff and don’t want to get rid of it all! I want to keep my stuff but have it organized. You know?
But in order to do that, I first needed to declutter the stuff that was already in the house. Which was a lot because we’ve been in the house for over 45 years as a family. And, not throwing anyone in particular under the bus, there were a lot of duplicate purchases and overwhelming piles of paper. And, well, 80 years worth of life.
With all that we are doing, I thought I’d make it into a series to share with you. Giving you some tips on how we approached it along the way, in case you find yourself in a similar situation.
At times it’s been incredibly overwhelming and because of that, we’re still slowly chipping away at what needs to be done. While we’ve mostly tackled the main living floor, there are still some areas I’d like to edit further. However, there are still big projects of closets and whole rooms to go through. And then there’s the garage, basement and attic that will need major work. Oh, wait! There’s also an outdoor shed!
I’ll be sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of the whole process, so be sure to come along for the ride!
