This year I have declared war on clutter. It is time to own less stuff! January has been really warm – so I was able to actually get a few things accomplished but there is still much more to do.

What I tackled so far

The Girl’s Room – Someone needs to say no to this child as she has more toys than Toys R Us. Seriously. What doesn’t she have? It’s just plain ridiculous and there is no room in her room for one third of what she has. So I have been storing a lot of her toys. If she doesn’t miss things in six months, then I will feel safe donating them. When she was younger, she remember all of her toys and would ask for ones even if they were put away. Now she is onto the new toy and does play with older toys but not like she once did. Fortunately she loves tiny toys. Those are awesome since they take up less room.

Besides moving toys out of her room, we moved a full size bed in there – leaving her with less space. Next in her room I plan to tackle her pile of stuffed animals. Now that she has a full-size bed, some of those can find a home there while the others can find a new home. She just isn’t into stuffed animals like she used to be.

Living Room – This room still needs some work but I moved around some furniture in hopes of a better layout. So far it is working. There are a few pieces that still need to be moved out and then we should have a nice, functional, sparse living room. I can’t believe how much that idea excites me. I definitely want a home where people feel comfortable and don’t have to shuffle around clutter just to find a spot to sit down. Soon the girl will have friends over so a clutter free home is what we all want.

There is still a lot to do. This weekend I plan to cull through our storage and donate a lot of items. Then I will get back to work in the house. There’s a long way to go but at least I can see real progress.

We have too much stuff. Why? Because we are terrible at letting go of stuff. We keep it because we may need it or it has sentimental value. Well no more. I am tired of shuffling stuff and tripping over things. Also with so much stuff you can never find what you need anyway.

It’s going to be tough as I feel I may have hoarder tendencies. I do let trash go and broken items but do hang on to more than I should. We have a lot of cool things that we never touch simply because it’s in a box, so we forget we have it. Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking more about just letting go of stuff. So right now we need a plan – so here is my rough plan of attack -

Go through the house first – one room at a time. Each weekend I plan to tackle a different room. This way I don’t get overwhelmed with trying to do everything at once.

Make quick decisions. I expect some items to make it through round one – or as I call it the lightning round. Clothes that I do not wear are being donated. Purses I do not use are getting donated. So there are some easy things to put in a donation box. Some items will make it past this round but then I plan to come back and really evaluate the value of an item.

A simple plan but hopefully will be very effective. Already I have another three bags full of stuff to donate – that’s all from one make-shift closet. This weekend I will tackle our bedroom. My goal is to get rid of half what is in there this first round.