Creeping Stuff

stufF creeP. stuFF creEP. StUFF crEEP. sTUFF cREEP. STUFF CREEP!!! Yikes!! How does that happen? How the stuff we collect, get, need comes in piece by piece until it looks like the house is going either collapse from the girth, the sides will fall outward or we will be forced out.

We are now in the process of doing some updating which includes moving stuff out and around, shoving things into the corners and other rooms where there is room. Too much stuff to me is chaos. So far we have made some headway by selling some things on Craig’s List, selling some of the hundreds of albums, donating to Steeple People (Minneapolis). Since my son has left some stuff, some of that is being donated and cleared out. This is as is good an opportunity to purge out the stuff, the creeping stuff.

The sentimental stuff, the stuff that does not fit, the stuff we have too many of, the stuff that we do not use. It is my goal to reduce the amount of our stuff by 25% to 33%. It can be easy to eliminate stuff that isn’t mine as I have little to no attachment to those things. I have discovered that as I pare down, it does become easier to let it go. The biggest accumulation is PAPER! I think our recycle bin is usually over half-filled with paper.

So I start by seeing if some of this stuff can be sold on Craig’s List. Then, I fill bags and boxes with items I can donate or share with someone else who can use it. As the burgeoning piles of stuff in the corners, tables, closets, the upstairs and basement storage are whittled down, I feel like I have more room to breathe!

With the needed house repairs, I want to enjoy the more open spaces instead of looking at the clutter. With this much stuff, I feel frustrated in the chaos and find I do not function as well, feel distracted and am frenzied trying to find the stuff I do need.

So out it goes. And hopefully for each item we bring in, we can either use it up to take two items out of the house. Chaos management.