What they said...

I will start by stating again how much I love Elizabeth Foss' blog, book, well, just about everything she shares with us. So I read this today and I thought, "My God, she's read my mind!" Please follow the blogs she's linked to as well. Its all good.

Shortly before Christmas, as I realized more "stuff" would soon be in our home, I started on a tear. I worry too about being puritanical about it, as Elizabeth says. However, as I began going through some cabinets in my kitchen, that haven't been touched since we moved, it struck me. What, you say? If I have not used this "thing" in the year we have lived here, how likely is it that I really need it? So, some stuff is slowly leaving my kitchen.

I also realize that I need to slow down and focus on one area at a time. I've been trying the whole house thing and it is too distracting. So the goal for January will be the kitchen. I think I need to break it down even further to a particular set of cabinets at a time.

I think next we will tackle clothes, starting with Maddy and Lilly. I tried an experiment when Agnes was born. I didn't take out all the baby clothes. Some items were just to old and were thrown away. Some items I never liked and I knew were never worn by any of the other girls. And some things I looked at again and though, nah, don't want her to wear it. In the end, all of her baby laundry was just one load that was washed every other week. So simple. Less meant less time washing, deciding what to put on her and being frustrated because it didn't all fit in her dresser. But, more on that next month.

In the end, I hate feeling like we are digging our from under a mountain if we invite company over. Or worried about surprise visitors being swallowed by clutter. I know some of this is still baby recovery time, but enough is enough. There is so much more I want to do in terms of school, fun stuff, creative stuff, "real learning"! All the stuff needs to get out of the way.