Operation "Just Chunk It"

Operation "Just Chunk It" has officially commenced. I guess one of my New Year's resolutions is to simplify. I don't really ever make resolutions, but I figured this was a good one and hopefully something that is realistic.

Our house isn't tiny, but it certainly isn't huge. It is too small though for all our current stuff. It shouldn't be though. It's a 3/2 with an average amount of closet space, decent size attic, big garage, and "man-cave." However, I feel like it's a 2/1 with no closets. Why? Simply put, we have too much CRAP.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a pack rat and hate throwing things away. I'm nowhere near those hoarder people though. Oh.My.Gosh. I was SO disgusted watching one of those "Buried Alive" shows last night that it really motivated me to get rid of the clutter. Clutter is why my house never feels clean. Hardly anything has a place. It seems when I move something out of the way, it just becomes in the way somewhere else.

I started with magazines. I have tons of Real Simple, Parenting, Marie Claire, Texas Monthly, etc. Not to mention Cabelas catalogs, Bass Pro, B.A.S.S. mags, and a ton of other in that genre. I pretty much decided I'm not renewing any either. That's why I have Pinterest. All those "ideas" that were my reason for hanging on to the old copies are on Pinterest. Same goes for the Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel catalogs that I hold on to. For real. I have NEVER bought ANYTHING from either of those places that wasn't a wedding present.

So, that was Step 1.

Step 2 is just IMMEDIATELY dealing with mail. The amount of junk mail we get is ridiculous. I'm getting a shredder and sending 95% of our mail straight to it. I love regular mail, so please feel free to send me some! Along with this, we need a place for Andrew's mail. I handle all the bills and stuff, but Andrew gets stuff and doesn't have a place to store it, so after I give it to him, it usually just sits on the counter or gets lost in his magazine/catalog basket under his night stand.

Step 3 is to come up with some system for bills paid and other paper things I need to hold on to. I have a box by my desk that everything gets dumped into after it's paid and once in a while when Andrew is out of town or I'm really bored (which is rare), I get out my real filing cabinets and file it all away. I know I should just do that as they come in, but it's much easier just to toss it in the box. There has to be a better system. I bet I can find one on Pinterest. :-) It's about to be tax time, which I dread, just because I know I HAVE to got through that 'ole box 'o papers.

Step 4 is to QUIT HOLDING ON to things for an IMAGINARY garage sale. I have yet to convince Andrew to have one, so if he's not on board, I'll just take it to the United Board of Missions. NO MATTER WHAT IT IS. It is SO hard for me to donate some things that I know have value (or that I paid a lot for) or could be sent to a more specific user charity. Fact is though. I won't take the time to do it, so just give it away. I REALLY want to have a garage sale though, and I think the way I could make it happen is if everything was stored in an organized fashion in the ATTIC until then. Although we do have a big garage, it is pretty well occupied with two boats, two kayaks, a grill, a million decoys, all that lawn/garden stuff, tools, an old TV, an old coffee table... you get it. I have a TON of throw pillows in excellent used condition that SOMEONE could use. They are taking up a lot of space in the attic. I also have a couple old printers, luggage, baby clothes (I'll discuss that more below), home decor, lamps, books, costume jewelry, etc., just to name a few. The problem with our attic though is that in the summer it is JUST TOO HOT. I've already discovered that anything with elastic was pretty much ruined. I really need to figure out what can be stored there and what needs to be in the A/C. What about the basket 'o phone chargers and chargers to things we don't know what they are. I don't want to throw them away JUST IN CASE one of those chargers is the magic one.

Step 5 is to REALLY narrow down the baby stuff. Yes, we want another child and no, we don't know what his/her gender will be, BUT... fact is, no matter what, we have WAY too many baby clothes and other stuff. I think I put about 10 diaper boxes (the big ones) full of clothes that he has already out grown up there. Seriously, if #2 is a boy, he would probably use 1/2 (or less) of the clothes up there. Someone gave us a car seat before Carson was born that we initially were going to use but then discovered it was a 2001 (which is more than 6-years old, which they don't recommend using). Secondly, it wasn't compatible with any strollers, because of it's age. So, we got our own car seat. So now, I have two car seats and FOUR bases in the attic. Pretty sure I can chunk the old one. I think it's actually supposed to be "DESTROYED" so that no one uses it. I already gave away an umbrella stroller that was entirely too short for me. I had to hunch over to push it, so adios! Toys, don't even get me started on toys... I really need to ROTATE the toys he plays with on a daily basis because there are WAY too many in the house. I know there are a bunch in the attic too from when he was little. Honestly, if they weren't a big hit with Carson, I should probably just let them go. Another HUGE item is the big swing. I know I will need a swing again, but I really didn't care for the one I bought with gift cards, even though we did use it a lot. Surely someone will have one I can either borrow or I can buy a new one when the time comes. Is it worth hanging on to it just so I can hate it again later? Okay, I'm rambling now, but you certainly get my point about the baby stuff...

Step 6 is to get my desk in order. I'm one of those with "organized" piles of stuff on my desk. It just looks messy which is starting to bug me.

Step 7 is to QUIT SAVING EVERY BOX. I have this fear of needing to return things and not being able to, so I pretty much hold on to all the boxes of big purchases/gifts, i.e. car seats, strollers, pack 'n plays, Roomba, steam mop, cameras, GPS, nice sunglasses, etc. etc. Seriously, it's ridiculous. The whole upper shelf of one of our kitchen closets is little boxes from stuff we've bought. For a while there, I was also saving just about every box from Amazon. I do break them down, but still. I think we used about 4 bags this Christmas, EVERY gift was wrapped in a box from Amazon, Zulily, baby food, etc. It was nice to have those on hand, but I need to seriously cut back.

Step 8 is to make a PLACE for EVERYTHING. Andrew always complains that I "hide" his stuff. I don't do it intentionally, but when it doesn't have a place, I just make one and sometimes it's different each time. It drives me crazy too because I can't find things because I put them somewhere other than they were the time before.

Okay, I need to stop. There are LOTS more steps to this process, but I need to focus on getting some of the above steps checked off first. Wish me luck!