Sarah Vs the Stuff (Part II)

Day Two of the great unstuffing...

I tackled the underwear drawer and dug out all the Outback stuff I had and took it in. Letting go of the Outback stuff was very sad for me. It made the whole leaving thing feel very permanent. It hit me finally that I'm really not going back. I was kinda bummed about it afterward and Kyle asked why I didn't keep my flair for the memories. I had had the same conversation with myself when deciding whether to take it in or not. Everything in my house has memories associated with it. How will we ever get rid of stuff if we hold on to everything that ever meant something to us? In twenty years will I be sad about getting rid of my flair collection? Probably not. Does it make me sad now? Absolutely.

Rob and I chatted last night about what we want for the house. We have come to the mutual understanding that our stuff is driving us crazy and he agreed to help me unstuff us. We want a simple life. Two or three hobbies that we can actually do because we can find the stuff for them, a really fabulous kitchen, serene and calm bedrooms, a living space that is easy to maintain, and a garage that doesn't kill you when you walk through it. How hard can this possibly be?

How Does Your Garden Grow or: Sarah Vs. The Black Thumb (Part III)

I went out today to weed my garden and settled for admiring how many plants are coming up instead. I'm telling myself it will be easier to weed after the day and a half of rain we are supposedly going to get. So I didn't feel like it was a total loss, I did water the plants in the garage as I have a bad tendency to kill them a week or so before I end up planting them.

The daisies are blooming, I will have to post some pictures at some point to prove that I managed to grow something...

Sarah Vs. the Black Thumb (Part II)

Status update:

Back flower bed ripped up, landlord planted shrubs, I planted bulbs which are coming up (yay!)

Front flower beds weeded, some plants relocated, lilac bush planted, daisies starting to bloom, roses pruned.

Garage flowers and veggie starters look pretty good, I had about a 70% success rate with the seedlings and will probably plant them next week.

I have green stuff that doesn't look sad!

Picture Perfect? or Sarah Vs. Stuff (Part I)

We all do it...leaf through magazines with these pictures of perfect rooms and imagine how much stuff we would have to get rid of to make our house look like that. How much stuff do we really need? We have stuff exploding out of our closets and storage areas into all of the other areas of our lives. I have decided (again) that I am sick of it. With a move still hanging over our heads, this is perfect motivation to unstuff ourselves.

This has been on my to do list in some fashion or another for months and I just haven't gotten to it yet. So today, unable to find something I know I purchased, but unable to uncover it under all the stuff that has filtered into our house, I decided to get started. Another motivating factor was coming home two nights ago to my husband burning paperwork he has been promising to go through for five years. I figure that if he is in a unstuffing mood, I should take advantage of that.

I have used the Flylady system (www.flylady.org) for years to keep my house clean, but never really did the decluttering tasks as I hate working in 15 minute increments on anything. I prefer to make massive, unreasonable lists that I will never be able to finish and burn myself out instead. Or, I just invite family up to give myself motivation for marathon cleaning sessions. Now the birth of our child has put a major kink in my ability to do anything for more than 15 minutes at a time so today during one of his micro naps I started my journey with a drawer. The sock drawer I can't put socks into seemed a good place to start so I dumped it on the bed. How many pairs of white socks does a person who does laundry every other day need? Technically three, but I kept ten just in case.

Can I get the house decluttered before the move at an unspecified date? I want our next house to be magazine worthy. I want one of those homey, inviting rooms that you could live in...without tripping over the stuff you can live without.

And I Had to Shoot my Mouth Off

So basically since I posted yesterday, he has been constantly feeding, constantly fussing, screaming ball of hysteria. That will teach me to call him well-adjusted and obliging.

Six Days

Ask and you shall receive...

I ask for a semblance of a schedule, Gus obliges. Six days of sleeping through the night, eating at four to five hour intervals, and napping at predictable times. Of course I don't count on it lasting but it is a breath of fresh air for me.

Morning Reflections

You lay there for a moment in the peaceful silence. You can hear the birds singing outside and the light filtering in through the blinds. You hear the deep breathing of your boys on either side of you and the cat's purr at your feet. And then it dawns on you...I just slept the whole night without waking up once!

So of course I woke everyone up to share in my excitement. Gus because he hadn't eaten in seven hours and Rob because I felt he should really appreciate the significance of the moment.