Purging....

I have a dream...

A wonderful dream...

I dream of a home without clutter...

Nope this post is not exactly a repeat of "the elusive clean house".  I am sure though, that if I realized this dream, it would bring me a step closer to the elusive clean house.

Getting rid of clutter looks so easy for some people, why oh why is it so hard for me?  Even when I would move every year or two I always was prone to accumulating useless things.

I have to admit that when I moved often, and lived in a small space, I would have a very very VERY good impetus to get rid of things on a regular basis.  I would run out of space so much faster, and paying for a bigger truck to move this stuff, no thank you.

Now I live in a nice town home, which I no longer share with other people, just my kids and I, plenty of space, a whole basement, a nice large bedroom, it's so much easier to put stuff aside and just leave it there.  And it accumulates, and accumulates, and accumulates... (no you don't start a sentence with "and" I know)

My home is now filled with way too much stuff, I need to purge!  Massive purge!

- Get rid of all clothes that none of us wear anymore for whichever reason (mostly too small).  That would make a lot of room (especially drawers and closets :-))

- Get my scanner fixed and scan all documents that need to me kept for whichever reason and get rid of the originals (this includes my box of pictures, artwork from the kids when they were younger, maybe cards and letters that have special meaning, report cards and school awards)  OK some of those would be nicely packed away and stored , but rather than having 10 boxes, maybe I'd have 2 totes, one per child.  The rest could be disposed.  These can be stored on external hard drives.

- Convert all my VHS movies to MP4s and store it all on external hard drives. 

Can you imagine the space saving this would generate!!!!!  WOW

That is just a start.  I also have a lot of paint supplies.  Why?  Bought them to paint my furniture and walls, but never had the time and energy to have it done.  SO -  Get all my painting chores done and get rid of all those cans.  Hum that's a nice clean-up there...  Requires a bit more effort though.

What else, what else?.... Hummmm.....  Linens.  I know kind goes with the clothes, but I do have way more linens than I need.  The kids have outgrown some of them (Nascar items).  Some are old and not even useful for the cats...  MUST GET RID OF LINENS!!!!!

Doing good.  Some of these things can be done in a weekend.  Can I do them this weekend?, Would that not be nice?  It would be so much easier if the kids could help.  Even with a simple thing as removing the boxes/bags of the stuff I am purging and putting them in the car.  Letting me know wherever it gets full so we can do a drop off at a charity.  Some things we could even put by the "trash" as giveaway.  Because of the FM and CFS, this is the part that tends to stop me from doing decent purges.  It drains me to go up and down stairs, in and out of the house.

As for painting the house, I had considered paying some young people to paint the living room.  The problem with that is always the funds.  I have had a lot of extra expenses in the last year, and those have depleted a lot of the money that I was planing on using for home improvements.  Maybe I can still see if my daughter has friends who would be interested in weekend project and a little extra cash.  Having that completed would feel so great!

Digital conversion will take time no matter how you look at it.

I have this set of 6 chairs.  They are solid and I really like them.  I am not currently using them though and cannot foresee using them any time in the future.  I was kind of planning on letting my daughter have them when she moves out.  She will be turning 19 soon, and the moving out day will come sooner than expected.  I also have a table to send along with them.  We use the table for laundry, so the table stays.  Any de-cluttering advice states  the chairs have to go.  Especially since I had put them for sale at a certain point.

I am torn on this one.  Maybe if I find someone to give them to, rather than just send to charity or put by the road I would be more likely to let them go.

There are so many things that need to go.  So many things that we do not need.  Our lives would be improved by them being gone.  It needs to get done, It MUST.  It's a mountain to climb.

Sometimes I wonder if I should register for those shows that come in your home and make it better, either the cleaning, redecorating, or de-cluttering shows.  The thought is so scary to have strangers come in and do these things, but at the same, it would make such a good difference in our lives.

It would be easier to have strangers who do not know me and that I never would have to face again do this purging, painting and cleaning that to have people I know.  There would be so much shame on my part to have people see how far I have gotten behind.  Strangers, I would be ashamed while, but would quickly get over it.


Thanks for reading.