No???? Oh, well, I am all kinds of messed up with this weather going up and down and all around. I feel like I have been in a weird fog of not knowing what month, day, or time it is for several months now. Am I the only one to feel this way?
Since it is the last day of the month, I woke up this morning knowing that I needed to spend some time finishing up the menu for this next month, looking over some of the events we have coming up in February, thinking through what needs to be done in order for those events to run smoothly (or as smooth as possible, right?), etc. But of course all of this indoor brainstorming, calendar studying, and menu/grocery list writing had to fall on a day when the weather was over 60 degrees outside! On the last day of January?! I'm not complaining, just admitting it is confusing and totally random! So, of course, I had to throw our usual daily schedule out the window, because with this crazy weather, it would be my luck that if we didn't play outside, we'd probably get snowed into our home in 3 days and be stuck inside for a month!
So, instead of putting our toddlers down for naps after lunch today, we played outside all afternoon! We rode the Cozy Coupe down the hill several times, cleaned up the back deck, rode bikes up and down the street, and then the kids and I went for a walk! There is a sort of wilderness down the street from our house, and Emersyn (our 4-year-old daughter) said she wanted to "go on a bear hunt". We went "exploring" down a mowed path in the middle of this wooded field in the center of our neighborhood. Keegan (our 1-year-old son) kept telling us "shh" and pointing to his nose... because that is the signal for being quiet, right? We had a blast!
But 4pm rolled around, and I knew that the little man needed a nap, and I had to get my "indoor" work done. But it dawned on me as I sat down with the laptop... Hello! This laptop can go outside! Duh, right?! So while the little people slept, I enjoyed my time in my outdoor office, wearing slippers and covering up with my great-grandmother's gaudy, but very warm, homemade quilt, and looking over all my calendars. This month we have work (between my husband and I, we work 2 full-time jobs and 4 part-time jobs), which that alone will kill your calendar with ink right there! Ha! But we also have speech therapy on Fridays, 4 get-togethers, and a wedding (my husband's first to officiate!)! It is a short month, but jam-packed, which is how I like it anyway.
Something I am not planning to do in February is something my husband and I have done for the past few years, In the past we have done a Financial Fast in the month of February. You can read all about that at http://livingonvicariousgrace.blogspot.com/2014/02/financial-fast-february-failure.html And while I think this is a wonderful thing to do at least once a year, it just won't work for us at this time. We have too many things going on that will require us to spend money this month, and we are already trying to pay off two bills by the end of the school year.
But I do feel that we need some kind of challenge in February, even if it won't be necessarily a financial one. So I have been reading through a lot of "how-to"s on uncluttering. And I feel this is a HUGE need in our home! Since we live in a home twice the size of our last one, we have gotten soft in the area of being organized and cleaning out the junk from our space periodically - mainly just because we don't have to worry about condensing things down anymore. But sometimes I feel tense and stress just by opening a closet door or drawer, because there is so much random stuff in there!
So our February 2016 challenge is to rid our home of 500 things by the end of the month! I have seen this done on other blogs and tutorial videos, and I feel inspired to clean out our junk! Others that have done this have made daily goals, and some have organized their challenge by object or room. I decided I would start with a list of problem areas and just clutter that stresses me out in general, and then see where to go from there. I am going to have a weekly goal, so that I can be flexible about when I conquer these problem-areas in my home. I am also having to decide where I am going to put all of these things I am decluttering from my home. It just so happens that one of our garage doors is broken - which is bad for Kyle who has to park outside, but it does provide an open half of our garage to pile these 500 items into. Then I will divide the 500 items into 3 smaller piles - give away, throw away, and sell. Either way, these items must be out of our house and off our property by March 1st... can we do this?! I certainly hope so!
Let the decluttering begin! Anyone else wanna do this with us? We will be posting a couple of times a week on how this challenge is going, and if you know of anyone who needs some of the stuff we are getting rid of, just let us know!
Freedom From Junk 2016 Challenge begins tomorrow!
The problem areas I will begin with are:
Kitchen counters (the catch-all space)
Entryway closet
My clothes
Our bedroom (the catch-all room)
My daughter's closet
My son's closet
Living room toys
Playroom toys
4 junk drawers in the kitchen (I know, it is shameful to even admit)
Laundry room (the other catch-all room, and I never clean that room... yikes)
Downstairs desk
Upstairs desk
I'm starting to think 500 items won't be that difficult after all! Woohoo!
