What I am dreaming about is an "empty house".
Empty of what? Well, empty of junk, clutter, stuff I might want, posessions and well, EXTRA. I want my home empty of anything and everything that takes my mind and my time away from my family.
I don't want to feel guilty about drawers and cupboards that have been neglected. I don't want to carry stress and guilt over unfinished "one day" projects. I don't want to be afraid of living in regret for giving away books and "sentimental" belongings that I might want to keep, but honestly probably wont ever read or use.
I don't want to continuously pick stuff up, maintain order, dust, reorganize cluttered surfaces and feel like "heck sake! i just knocked something over!" I don't want to nag at my kids to watch out, they might knock off a pile of papers and magazines.
I don't want to carry anymore baggage!
I don't really want to create boxes and label them for the sake of organizing. I don't need my home to be a shop with isles and isles of labelled 'goods'. Even if I had labelled boxes, I would need to pick stuff up and find a place for them. Labelling might make things easier but I am still tidying up junk and that has not changed.
What if my home was as simple as it gets? What if we woke up in the morning and the day was about relationships instead of stuff. For instance, instead of having a swing, sitter, play mat and a musical play mat for my baby that are in the way on the living room floor, which are obstacles for me, we would have only one of them? Will the baby miss out on the stuff. What could we gain from owning a little less- just one thing? The baby is more bothered about the faces than the gadgets on the swing. Which will the baby learn more from? What will I gain from it? I can BE. I can enjoy. I can hold.
I am known for my laminating desire. I used to find any reason to laminate anything... like my cousin K.D once put it, "I would laminate my toothbrushes if I could". Come to think of it, why laminate? Better yet, why NOT to laminate. I have several reasons why NOT to; extra plastic covered paper clutter. How will laminating affect the earth? I know, pretty deep stuff right? But seriously, how will I recycle it? Life changes EVERYDAY! I change everyday. My teaching skills change and so do my ideas. Are my pieces of paper worth toxic build up? Besides, laminating paper tricks us to believe that they are important and eventually just piles up.
These are my 2 rules of thumb (for now)
- Only laminate important documents/craft projects i.e diploma or hand made bookmarks which need protecting
- In homeschool or at work, instead of laminating words to place on the wall temporarely, use a marker/chalk and a board.
I browse a ton of "organizing" blogs and sites on how to be organized. I find myself motivated and inspired in so many ways and feel that I want to get started immediately in tackling my home. Hold on! I've been down this road before and I'm perhaps on it again as we speak. Okay, so I have bought my supplies to help us to be more organized. I've labelled, stacked and made it look pretty. I am on a roll! I do a great job for about say, 2 weeks. One day I am overwhelmed with the day and pile stuff "to put away later" into my organized shelves, cupboards and wardrobes. This is forgotten and the piles get bigger and spread. See, those piles are unnecessary stuff, stuff we dont need and never get used. The piles keep on growing and one day when I do finally get to go through them, I store the items like I would need them, but I dont! I didn't even know I had most of it. Don't you get it, stuff in your home is clutter! What if those piles never appeared and you didnt have to store away stuff in colour coordinated cupboards to look perfect and then get overwhelmed and upset because they end up looking imperfect? Give it up.
NOW I KNOW I AM GOING TO GET A LOT OF HATE MAIL FOR THIS ONE please bare with me...
-BINDERS. Oh yes, I said it. I almost fell for that. I almost created myself an "excel sheets" in a personal binder to remind myself to drink water, scrub my sink and hug my husband... Where is the freedom in this? How about the spontinuety? Where in this do I "live"? If my days are filled with tasks to be done (tasks that someone thought were so important) where do I just 'BE' as we were MADE by our creator, to BE? Now if we need reminding of some things, can it not be done by having an accountability partner or friend?
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