Less | A Month of Action

It’s the last week of May and I’m starting it off with an update on my word of the year: Less. I’ve been focusing on embracing doing less and giving myself a little grace for the last few months, but began the year with the mantra less clutter, less spending, less waste. I circled back to that this month and did a lot of work around the house with that in mind.

ACTION TAKEN:

👖 I went through the upstairs closets and decided what could be donated and what needed to be tossed. It feels good to reach into a closet and know that everything is going to fit a particular child and will be presentable! And I have a full bag of nice things to drop off at Goodwill, which is also feels good.

🥤 I got rid of some old sippy cups and baby plates in one of our cabinets. This allowed me to move the kids’ spare water bottles into a place that’s somewhat hidden and to remove some visual clutter in the kitchen. “Spare” water bottles are necessary around here, given how often the kids seem to break theirs or Colton leaves his at either school or his treatment center and needs to be sent in with a backup.

🍅 I cleaned out a catch-all cabinet in our kitchen. Somehow, we’ve accumulated three food processors in there. Three! I don’t know how it happens either. Getting rid of one was an easy decision but I still have some work to convince Matthew to get rid of one more. The items in this one (large) cabinet filled up a contractor’s bag!

💄 I went through my makeup bag and got rid of a bunch of stuff. It’s a very small bag and there wasn’t too much extra, but I’m pretty consistent about what I use and there was no need for the extra brushes and powders. Now it’s easier to get ready in the morning because I don’t have to sift through everything to find what I need.

📚 I have been working to list books and cross stitching patterns on Ebay (and some have been selling!) in an effort to get a small return on what I’ve already spent. Every little bit of money helps right now and it feels good to know that things are going to the home of someone who is seeking out this particular item and is trying to save a few bucks by purchasing something used.

🪡 I mended a bra! The underwire on my best bra busted out and I sewed it back in. This almost always happens to me and I don’t understand why; it doesn’t seem to matter how “high quality” the product is. Normally I just toss them but this one was fairly new and I didn’t want to waste the money, so I got out my needle and thread and sewed the hole closed. I have no idea how long this fix will last but I’ve gotten a few more days out of it already, so that makes me happy!

FUTURE STEPS:

Areas I’m hoping to tackle in June:

• My closet again: more weeding out what I don’t wear and the clothes I shouldn’t wear. I tend to wear things until they’re threadbare and full of holes that are not even mendable. It’s time to just toss a few things that I regularly wear to make room for new favorites. I’m also going to get rid of a ton of clothes hangers that I don’t use; I like a particular kind and the rest are empty and in the way.
• Our linen/medicine/toy/bug spray/etc closet. Despite all of my efforts, it’s always a mess. Every time I need a towel, everything falls to the floor. Every time I need an ibuprofen (often), I knock something over. This is a massive project that has overwhelmed me for years. My plan next month is to start imagining how I want that closet to look and how I need to perform — put that on paper. Maybe I will execute that plan in July?

INSPIRATION:

It is so easy to get overwhelmed with all of this. To keep me in the mindset of paring down, I’ve been watching two minimalist YouTubers while folding laundry:

• Sophie @ Malama Life
• A to Zen Life

And always in the back of my mind while decluttering are my two favorite books on the topic: The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.

Those books and channels help me put my desires into words. We all know that if we can articulate the why then it’s so much easier to figure out what’s really important and to focus our efforts. This has been a big part of my morning journaling this month!

My why is simple: I want to save time for the things that matter. I don’t want to spend all my time sorting through things just to find what I need. I want to be able to clean the house quickly and not spend time shifting one mess around so that I can scrub the surface it’s sitting on. If we needed or wanted to move into a new home, I don’t want to sort through everything we’ve ever owned in order to pack this house up.

It’s not the kids’ messes or toys that bother me. It’s all of the things that we think we need to get through the day, but don’t. It’s the three food processors in the cabinets, the extra clothes hangers, and the random makeup brushes that get in the way. It’s spending more money on clothes that I could learn to mend. It’s the accumulation of the things I want in the moment, but find that I don’t actually have time for or could have consumed in a more thoughtful way.

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It felt good to take these steps in May and to brainstorm a few small projects for June. In a perfect world, I’d like to get make a run to Goodwill and fill a contractor’s bag every week, but I know that’s too much for me to sustain. But once a month feels possible in the long run. Twelve purges a year is still a lot and adds up, especially if I’m able to control how much comes into our home. We all know that tidying and decluttering is a lifelong habit that takes practice — and I hope for a lot of practice the rest of this year!

Thank you to Carolyn for hosting this linkup every month. She’s such a fantastic host and these monthly check-ins keep my word relevant and at the top of my mind.

I plan to be back on Wednesdays. Until then – take good care!