At Christmastime I realized that I was done with clutter.  This is not the first time that I’ve felt this way.  I’ve been “decluttering” for years.   I’ve even devoted time to the subject here.  I’ve devoted a lot of time to decluttering, and to organizing, and “cleaning” and “clearing…and all the other “ings” that go along with having possessions.

I’ve long since dealt with the issues that compel me to collect things – or thought that I had.  During one of our recent “we need to change things” discussions, my husband pointed out that maybe I was afraid of not having the major decluttering project to fall back on.  That maybe having something like that to do, that only I could do, gave me a purpose.

Could it be that I was afraid of having “nothing” to do?  Could I fear what I would need to do to fill the time that was being taken up with dealing with all the stuff?  Make more art, take on another project that I wasn’t as familiar with.  Open my home to others because I didn’t need to say, “…if the house was clean”?  Hmmmm……

All I know for sure, is that at Christmastime, I was really done with the stuff being in the way of enjoying time with my family.  I kept seeing things that I felt needed to be done before I could sit down and really “be” with everyone.

Something clicked.  Since then I have been sorting, donating, and pitching like crazy.

Our bedroom was first.  We have only the furniture we need.  Gone is the chair nobody ever sat in.  Gone are the blankets stored away in case the Dallas Cowboys needed a place to sleep and chose our home.  Gone is the extra art on the walls that it turns out no one liked anyway.  Gone are the extra clothes saved in case I ever gained weight again.  That one was a no-brainer.  But, actually, it all was. With the exception of extra toilet paper, what was I trying to be prepared for?

We ripped up the ten year old carpet that was really, really gross and painted the sub-floor white.  That will do until we can afford a “real” floor.  We’ve talked about doing something for years, but couldn’t do it the right way so we did nothing at all and were unhappy about it.

That has all changed.  The bedroom isn’t perfect.  There are some things I would still like to do, but it has stayed clean and tidy for two weeks!  I have made progress and that makes me happy.