There are so many reasons that I have decided to become more minimalist in my home...among those reasons are these:  

1.) When people come over for unexpected visits, I will no longer have to be embarrassed about the mess that they might walk into.
2.) When people call and let me know that they're coming over, I will no longer have to run around like crazy, trying desperately to figure out where I can put all of the "stuff", and clear the clutter so that the house can look presentable.  
3.) The "I can't find my shoes!" problem (almost every time we're going somewhere) should be, for the most part, solved!
4.) I will actually be able to find and enjoy the things I actually CARE about.
5.) My house will no longer be a glorified storage building.
6.) I won't be spending money we don't need to spend, shopping at yard sales, or getting sale items at Walmart (unless they are NEEDED items- not that I won't mess up here and there, lol), therefore, we'll have more money for our savings!
7.) I will be able to actually relax and read a book every once in a while, without having to be constantly distracted by the overwhelming mess that I have to deal with on a daily basis.  (I never can really enjoy sitting down to do anything because of everything that has to be done).
8.) The kids will learn that we don't rely on THINGS to make us happy.  There is so much more to life!
9.) I will feel free to invite people over more often.
10.) I will be able to enjoy life and do more things, because I won't feel like a prisoner to the house, because I have "so much to do".

I'm sure there are many more, but those are the ones I thought of right away.   I am just so excited!    The house is becoming something I can actually enjoy and relax in.   Clutter has always been the number one stress area in my life....I can't tell you how many times I have become overwhelmed at the amount of STUFF that I had to manage, organize, and try to figure out how to deal with.  Why in the world did such a simple solution, to get RID of the stuff, never come to my mind? 

Over and over again, I would try to organize my clutter, buying plastic bin after plastic bin, and getting more and more THINGS to sort out the THINGS that I was most likely never going to use anyway.    Maybe I was still too attached to all of that STUFF to actually make the changes that were necessary.   I finally had a change of heart and realized that even those things that I thought were important, really aren't.  People really don't need nearly as much stuff as we think we do.  

I did fulfill the challenge that I posted a couple of days ago, and today, I have done even more.   All day long, I've been taking things from around the house, and am really ENJOYING just throwing things into a sack for the Salvation Army.   Clothes, books, toys, shoes, pots, pans, random things like weaving looms and laptop desks...anything that we are not currently using and have no real use for...going in the bag! 

Today I actually collected over 8 bags of things to give away, as well as three plastic bins and a box full of things we don't need.    I am starting to really see a difference in the house, and I LIKE IT.    The kids seem to like it too, because they keep offering to go in their rooms and get rid of stuff too.       Not only that, but I've been dealing with a lot of trash too....I've filled more sacks of garbage than I have in a very long time.   Old books and stained clothes that we don't need, old notepads, random papers and magazines, and things that are just not good enought to give away are all a part of it are all going..it accumulates so quickly.   I think that I have about 14 sacks of garbage from the last few days of work.   No kidding!

I think that for some people, being organized and free of clutter just comes easy and naturally.  Unfortunately, for me, it has always been a huge struggle, and I think the reason is because of the sheer amount of stuff- it is just not humanely possible to manage it all and still do all of the other things that have to be done in a day.   That is why I think this is finally the answer.   

As long as I can continue not to accumulate more after this cleaning spree is overwith, things should be much easier from here on out.

Has anyone else gone through a similar decluttering and had positive results?   Please share your stories!

Here is a picture of today's progress... I worked on the mural for another few hours.  I have done a lot, but I can't believe how much is still left to do!  This is a really large wall, and painting in between the grooves of the brick is a long and tedious process!   It will be worth it when it's all done though.

(What I have done is fixed the wheels on the truck, added shadows and grass under the truck, drew the outline for the horses and plow, painted shadows where the fence posts will be, and partially painted the logo on the truck.)

Wow, busy day today.   James and I have been working hard and are seeing dramatic results in the house since we've been working together to get things done.  I don't know why but having just one person there to help you really does wonders in helping things along!   It would take me weeks to do alone what we can do in a day together.



Today, not only did I get the bag of shoes, and the bags of clothes, but we also went through our walk in closet and emptied all of our storage boxes, and got rid of what we didn't need. Turns out it was a lot of stuff, and we have Hefty sacks all throughout the living room now (and I already took a load to the Salvation Army this morning!)    I think there are probably about 6-7 bags of things to take away.  Books, clothes, random nic nacs, and other things are making their way out of this house.  We also cleaned out James' Playstation (and other) game collection, which has been gathering dust for a couple of years.  We got rid of a couple of dozen games!   

Another thing James tackled (while I was gone to take the first load of bags to town) was two boxes full of random cords that we're not using anymore. 

WOW, many areas of the house look different already.   Seeing a difference really gets me motivated to keep going.

Tomorrow, I want to challenge myself to find 1 Hefty sack full of items to take from the kitchen, 1 sack for the livingroom, and one for our bedroom and hallway.   Doesn't matter what it is- if it's too good to throw away, but we don't need it- it's gone!   

I did all of the 2nd challenge yesterday, except for the shoes...I will hopefully get to that today!

James helped me get started with some major decluttering, and we went through our bookshelves in our room (we have three!), and got rid of 4 Hefty sacks of books, and threw away about 2 Hefty bags of books, paper, and notebooks we didn't need anymore.   I can't believe we had that many books that we don't need anymore.  Our room looks SO much nicer without all of the extra books...and we were able to find many things we had lost over the years.  I found several old video tapes, some old letters, and other things of importance that I had forgotten existed while doing this!   It's going to take a long time to get through all of the rooms in the house, but with James' help, it will be so much easier!

Here's a challenge for today:
*Get rid of 2 sacks full of clothes that we don't need anymore.
*Get rid of one full sack of shoes that we don't need anymore.

(One thing I've learned is that a bad mistake I've made over the years is yard saling!   Most of the time I can get 20 shirts for 5 dollars, or something like that.. It might be a great deal but it also is just a way to hoard more stuff I don't need!  From now on, I need to control myself better, and if I do go yard saling, only get what I need, even if I see brand new shirts for a quarter a piece. lol Just because it's a good deal does not mean I NEED IT)

I'll let you know how we do!

  Yesterday, at about 5:30, James and I took the kids to the mural site and started painting. The kids had a lot of fun being there with us.



James was a HUGE help to me, as it takes forever to fill in those grooves in between bricks, and he filled in a lot of where the field grass will be.  It is so much work and he saved me a lot of time by doing that for me.



Noah and Caleb wanted to help, so I made a circle with paint and told them they could paint green inside the circle.  They did a great job and had a lot of fun.   I think they'll remember doing this when they get older.... and how great will it be that they'll be able to see the mural when they get older and say they had a part in it?





Bonnie took this picture...


Bonnie helped to entertain the baby whenever he wanted some attention...



Caleb took this picture of me...



Here is Ian next to the mural..



And here is what the kids looked like after painting ...what a mess! LOL 



Here's what the mural looked like when we got done for the night (about 2.5 hours later!)

Today, I got another 2 1/2 hours to work on the mural.... I worked on the truck, and got a lot done.  I will be adding a logo to it, and still have to work on the wheels, but it's coming along!   Yeah!

This part took an hour, because of having to fill in all of the grooves where the grout is:
 

Adding the details took another hour and a half:




Here's how it looks from the road....can't wait to get started on the next little bit....

I spent another 2.5 hours today working on the mural, and this is what I was able to do... it is a lot of work moving the scaffolding around all day, but it's good exercise too!

Today's challenge for me is:

* get rid of 25 more books
* find 50 more items of clothing to get rid of (I'm including baby clothes in this one)
* get rid of 6 pairs of shoes

Last Thursday, I painted the grid lines on the bottom half of the building I'm painting. I got started around 3:30 and  brought Bonnie with me... she had been dying to come, so I let her come and paint with me. 
 
The wall was actually longer than I had previously thought. It is 52 1/2 feet long.  I marked the entire bottom half of the wall with grid lines, like this:



It took about 2 1/2 hours. 

This morning, I went back and painted on the starting outline.  Here is what I got done in those 3 hours:



It's hard to see what I painted on the right corner without getting closer to it.  This wall is LONG.
Here I am in front of where the truck and house will be:



I don't know how long it will take to do this whole project, but I think it will definitely take longer than the ones in the past, since it's so much bigger!  I'll be working on it some more this week and will be sure to post progress pictures!

James has become interested in the idea of minimalism, since he has been hearing me talk about it a lot over the last few months, seeing how much I've gotten rid of so far (including things I used to not want to part with) and he's been doing some reading and thinking on it as well.    Yesterday, he told me he is on board with the idea and is going to help me do it...I was thrilled!    It will be wonderful having help!!    We are both really looking forward to having a house that is free of excess. 

If any of you are interested in minimizing your clutter/things you don't need too, feel free to join us!   I'll post what I'm going to try to do as a challenge, and if you want to participate, go right ahead, and then post below to let me know if you did it too!  

Today's challenge for me is:
*get rid of 50 items of clothing (here is an article to get you motivated !) - If you want to start with a smaller number, it's fine to set your own!
*get rid of 5 things in the kitchen that I have no use for 
*get rid of 15 books.

Later, I will try to post a picture of my bags of clothes, kitchen items, and nooks that I get rid of today!  

If you have kids, ask them to join in on the fun!   A good challenge for a child might be: find 5 toys and 5 books that you do not use anymore and do not need, and put them in a bag for Goodwill/Salvation Army/Freecycle.   Baby steps!

My daughter has been going through her room and getting rid of items I never would have dreamed she would part with.   She even got her entire set of VHS tapes (about 100), and put them in a bag to give away - willingly!  I didn't even ask her to do that. She just got caught up in the fun, since she saw me doing it and enjoying the freedom of letting go.  Kids will do it when they see that YOU are  doing it and having FUN doing it.     Let them be part of it...kids get overwhelmed by "stuff" too!

Update: Well, that didn't take long.  It has been about an hour since I posted the challenge, and I have my stuff ready to go!
It was harder than I thought it would  be go get 50 items of clothing, since I have already been going through my clothes so much and a lot of the things that are left, I like and think I might wear one day.   I got some from Caleb and Noah's closet, and most from mine.  If I don't absolutely LOVE it, it's going bye bye!

Here's my pile of 50 clothes:


Here it is in the black Hefty bag- that's a heavy bag!:


Here are the 15 books:


And here are the 5 kitchen items (pasta roller, dish drainer, stackable shelves, pie plate, and pretty covered dish):