It's Going to be Like a Fat Guy in a Little Coat......

So, I just finished another wonderful book. I've been curled up on the couch the past few days reading this book I picked up at the library last week. I've read so many wonderful books lately, but this one just took me back about 50+ years to a time when things were a whole lot more simple and no day to day distractions (like Facebook or e-mail.) It was set during the pre-war era 1960's, when you called your friends and neighbors on their home phone and played bridge on Mondays at noon. Sounds like fun, but I've never played bridge, however I might want to learn. I began thinking about how our lives are cluttered with unnecessary things and appointments that we dread. I'm hoping that one day, I can live by the words:

Less is More.

I'm not sure how to exactly go about this, but I've started de-cluttering my life and have begun thinking of all the things we hang on to for memories. Simple things like decorations, art made by our little ones, things I made as a child or something that a family member made before they passed away. I'm all for keeping their memory alive, but if I accumulate much more, I'm going to need another house.

So, I'm trying to get to a place where I don't need the object for the memory. Or latch on to it, because it once belonged to a great-third-cousin twice removed who found it at a local flea market and thought it would look perfect on their mantel and willed it to me or my husband. Because in fact, we don't have a mantel to place it on. Our family is also to the point where we know it's not going to be much longer before we PCS with the Army to our duty station. Now, I know how "roomy" the base housing can be. Let's just say I'll be lucky to fit a queen bed, dresser and two nightstands in the master bedroom. It's going be like the fat guy in a little coat getting all of our stuff in there.

Where does this leave me?

With a house full of stuff that I CAN'T get rid of, because it's perfectly good and someone would throw a fit to know that I passed it along to someone else. It's just like that crystal serving dish Clay & I received 7 1/2 years ago as a wedding present that I've yet to serve from. (Well, maybe I should hang on to it, you know for the my bridge club on Mondays at noon. So, I can serve tea sandwiches and deviled eggs off of it with my silver service.) Thank God that we didn't register for fine china when we got married. I'm partial to my clear dishes and Smurf glasses for entertaining.

However, I have an idea to solve my problem. I'll just go through one room at a time and just think to myself "If this ________ was really important or useful to me, it wouldn't be in a box, under the cabinet, stuffed in the closet in the office, etc." I'm spring cleaning and it's all going. I'm going to follow my own advice.....

If I haven’t enjoyed it, seen it, touched it or worn it in the last 6 months or going to in the next 6 months, it’s gone. However, there are two exceptions to this rule: my skinny clothes in the closet and my Husband! (deployments are 12 to 15 months long) Goodbye Clutter!

~excerpt from previous blog entry: Trying to Go from Semi-Hoarder to Semi-Simple.