Simplifying My Life

I already posted today, but something has popped into my head, something I'm struggling to accept: I can't keep everything my daughters' own. My oldest is 13 and just finished maintaining her already decluttered room. She decided to take it a step further and removed her Teen Beach Movie posters from her walls. She also removed her Spider-Man poster that she's had since age two. She folded them and placed them in her closest, so she's not donating them yet, but it did make me so sad to see this stuff gone. She's growing up, and though I want to keep everything she's ever been into, something from every stage she's experienced, I have to accept that I can't. I am struggling with my 10 month old's stuff at the moment as well. Perhaps it's because I'm returning to work after taking the school year off for maternity leave, but seeing my daughter's almost bare walls made me sad. She also handed me some books saying, "These can be d...

We love movies! We love movies more than most TV shows! My husband took a movie class back in the day and loves to look at the deeper meanings of a movie, all of the symbols and metaphors. We had so many movies. They are all displayed in our living room and sometimes we watch the same few movies over and over again. Some movies I we haven't revisited since we purchased them. I finally have moved my decluttering journey to our movie collection. I knew this would be a little difficult because my husband is very attached to most of his movies. I am really proud of him because he did get rid of a lot and was willing to not have all of his movies displayed. Here is our before photo: Not pictured is two Trader Joe bags of DVDs that my husband filled a couple of months ago. I was determined to clear two shelves full, but I only accomplished one ): We will need to purchase a new DVD disc container to store more of them.  I decluttered my CDs a few months ago (I wish I would ...

My husband and I are currently on Baby Step Number Two of becoming financially free. We have hit a few bumps trying to becoming pros at budgeting, but we are already seeing a great benefit to telling our money where to go vs. trying to figure out where it went! We initially used mailing envelopes to keep our money in but from the picture below, you can tell how great that turned out! My giant purse/bag doubles as a diaper bag, so I had everything crushed inside of it. My daughter's sippy cup actually leaked a little on this envelope. Change was also falling out of the envelopes and into the bag. It was a hot mess.  I really (really, really, really) want a Savvycents wallet or a Dave Ramsey Wallet, but we just can't afford the splurge at the moment. I felt I had to do something though so we could feel organized. I decided to make my own inserts for my wallet that I already have.  I'm a high school teacher, so I do have lots of office supplies lyin...

I have a very hard time letting go of things. I have some anxiety issues and I didn't really connect my hoarding of items with my disorders until I began my decluttering journey.  I have only panicked about two items that I have donated in the past year. Other than that, decluttering has been so therapeutic and it has been great to get rid of items that remind me of a past I'm ready to let go of. Last summer after learning about the KonMari Method, I began to declutter my home and life. I had just finished graduate school and was pregnant with my second child. I had been going to school for almost a total of ten years and had never really taken the time to declutter my life. I had my oldest at 17 and began college immediately. It wasn't until last summer when I finally finished school and listened to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever , that I began to change my life. Within a year, I have donated at least 20 bag...

I've been trying to recycle more, which feels time consuming to me lately! I'm trying to create less waste and to recycle more than I throw out, but that means storing items that aren't accepted in the city's bin that is picked up from our house. I have to save these items and then take them to a place that will accept them. I have come into a rhythm of this habit, but it can be a bit tiring with two kiddos. To save on the time and space, I have decided to become more proactive instead of reactive with that way I shop. I recently purchased reusable produce bags from etsy and I am in love! 💚 This has helped me to store less plastic that I save to recycle (since we cannot recycle plastic shopping bags in our city bin). It's something that seems small, but the bags were becoming quite an eyesore to look at in my pantry. And more times than not, I'd go grocery shopping and would forget to bring the bags to recycle, and the pile would become more large! The ...

I ran across these articles last week and they both have encouraged me to push my simplifying a little further. This first article talks about the book,  Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century by Jeanne Arnold. The book is a study of families and the possessions they own. I have put the book on hold at a local library, but the article gives an insight into the book. The part that struck a cord with me was a part where a mother mentioned that she would be saving all of her children's toy for her grandchildren. This encouraged me to get rid of a few more toys that my kids don't play with or find sentimental. Here is the article:  https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2012/07/09/new-study-says-american-families-are-overwhelmed-clutter-rarely-eat-together-and-are-generally-stressed-out-about-all/G4VdOwzXNinxkMhKA1YtyO/story.html This other articles from Psychology Today discusses the link between stress and clutter. This also encouraged me to get rid ...

"Beans and rice and rice and beans," is what Dave Ramsey often says one should live on during baby step number two to get out of debt. I've been comparing prices every week in the ads I get in the mail to get the best deals. I've been going to different stores and know which ones to stick to, to get the best deal (Sprouts always has the best prices on produce in our area!). I don't eat out for lunch ever because we are only allowed thirty minutes to eat at work and I usually have students in my room that I am helping with an assignment, so I'm used to packing. However, with a teen home for the summer and a little one, I have to pack snacks every where we go, just in case we they are hungry! I visited my sister a few days ago and packed lunch to make there (almond and jelly in tortillas!). Another way we save is by bringing water bottles with us everywhere we go. I bought Nalgene bottles for my husband, oldest daughter, and I a year ago and the...