07/24/2017
Where my inspiration came from!
Yes first of all I was tired of cleaning up every single night the millions of toys my kids had left behind from a full day of playing. I know you might think well why don't you just teach your kids to clean up...well yes I agree but the problem was bigger than that. My kids were also 5 months old and 23 months old when I started this personal journey...so little to say I'm slowly working on teaching them to tidy up...but first we declutter!
Then a friend told us about this movie called Minimalism on Netflix and let me tell you I was sold. Watching this movie opened my eyes to how much and how many of us are consumed by our consumerism. Its so bad actually that even just the thought of it paralyzes us to do anything about it. We frankly have way to much on our plates to take on the giant beast called decluttering. Why? Well because it takes time, physical energy and emotional energy that we don't necessary have in excess of especially for this. Typical conversations with ours kind of goes like this: Im going to need some boxes/bins that we don't have, where am I going to put this stuff we find until we decide what to do with it and well where to start, which room, upstairs or downstairs, maybe the kitchen it's really driving me crazy but if I start now I probably won't be finished and will have made a huge mess and then Julie is coming for diner tonight with her family and I won't be ready so I'll start with the basement but I have to do "this" first but in order to start "that" I'll "need" this; Ahh heck never mind it's simply just to hard. This is normal, painful in every way and paralyzing so we just don't think about it and avert our eyes as the clutter continues to build.
Well I was on my second maternity leave with a baby boy who simply wouldn't sleep for more than 1.5hrs at a time. I was exhausted but I was determined to find a way to get this done before going back to work. That's when I found a free online resource that changed our lives and made it possible for me to achieve my goal. It was a 30 day declutter challenge. I was at the end of my rope and figured since I was up all night I might as well do something about this giant problem of mine. So we started! Day 1 We removed 30 items from our home, day 2 we removed 29 things, day 3 -28 things etc. I grabbed a big box and walked around my house collecting what hadn't been used in who knows how long, didn't fit me or the kids, was broken/needed fixing and simply put no longer brought me joy. Great now my box was full; what's next? I decided that I was going to gift my items to a free mom and dad's Facebook group in my community (ours is called BCG- Barrhaven Community giving) I made a post with all the items I wanted to give away, people commented that they needed this and that or knew someone who could use it and then I chose someone to give it to; they came to my house and picked up the item and voila it was GONE! Not only that is was going to be loved again and stay out of the landfill!
This whole process screamed joy in every way for me! I removed items from my home, I gave it to someone in need which in turn saved our environment at least a little longer than if I had thrown it out myself. Yes ultimately all these things will end up in the garbage but that's another problem which we will discuss later; Im sure!
So tonight watch this movie, plant the tiny seed in your mind and let it grow. Believe it's possible and know you're not alone. How do you eat an elephant...one bite at a time!
So if you feel like I do but don't know what to do next Keep following as I will help guide you through this whole mess so you can to find JOY again!
