If you've joined simplify your life month, I'm so glad to have you! This month we'll be tackling some big things: finding your calling, paring down, organizing.
But before we do something that requires major mental or spiritual energy, I want this first challenge to actually GIVE you energy. It may not seem like that at first when I tell you what it is, but I believe, after it's done, that you'll feel great!
Do you have an area of your house that you're afraid to go into? It can be a room, a drawer, a closet, or a garage. Do you know what fear does to us? It robs us of energy. It creates a horrible feeling that we're missing out on something big. It lets us know that we can never relax, because there's something huge we're leaving undone.
Remember how you felt in high school, when there was always homework you should be doing? Everytime you tried to relax, you remembered that you really should be writing that essay, studying for that test, doing that assignment.
Then we graduate and we think the feeling's gone! But it's not. It's still there, it just takes a different form. Everytime we have an area of our home that is terrible, we feel just like we're 15 again, wanting to have some fun, but knowing that there's something we "should" be doing.
Let's take care of a "should" today. Grab just 15 minutes and tackle something--preferably something small, like a Tupperware drawer, or a stack of mail, or your dining room table.
A while back my daughter cleaned out my study (which was a mess; it had become the repository for all our junk in our home). She solved the problem, though, by moving the junk into the hallway. All over the floor.
So recently I cleaned up the hall. And I realized a lot of that junk was fabric--nice fabric--but fabric that I was never going to use. I'm a knitter, and as much as I have learned how to sew and have completed some projects, I know I'm never going to be a seamstress. So I took a deep breath, bundled that fabric up, and took it to a quilter's group who sews for charity.
I cleaned out my hallway by chucking some stuff that, nice as it was, I was never going to use.
Can you do the same thing? Can you find an area of your home that you can declutter? Go for it! And then write a blog post with pictures and link up in the Mcklinky below! Or, if you don't have a blog, Click "share" to put this on Facebook and add your own pictures there. Then leave the link to your decluttering photo album on Facebook in the Mcklinky (you'll just have to have your photos not set to private)!
And then we'll have a vote later in the week on the most amazing purge, and one winner will receive:
1. My To Love, Honor and Vacuum & Honey, I Don't Have a Headache Tonight audio downloads
and
2. $10 Amazon gift card
So declutter, and win! And thanks for participating in Simplify Your Life Month with me! I know you'll enjoy it!
UPDATE: Hello Org Junkie readers! This was a New Year's Challenge I had, but read down for some great pointers on what to do with clutter! Plus I like showing off my before and after pictures :).
Have you taken me up on my challenge yesterday yet? If not, I'm going to give you a chance to do so again today!
The challenge was to take some of these slow days between Christmas and New Year's and actually tidy and declutter the one area of your house you're scared to go in. I have two such areas, but I tackled one yesterday, and it looks awesome!
Here's a before:
And here's an after:
A few more:
And here's younger daughter vacuuming the TV with older daughter being silly:
Here's the challenge when you're decluttering, though. What do you do with all the stuff you want to get rid of? You don't want to contribute to landfill, so what do you do? Here are a few thoughts:
1. Give to thrift stores (if it works and if it's sellable). Don't just dump stuff that you would normally put in the trash. But if it's usable, give it.
2. Find families with younger children than yours and pass it on! We recently passed on about 30 Groovy Girls complete with clothing and furniture. What a great present for those little girls, now that our girls have grown out of them!
3. If you have old clothing, bedding, or linens, but they're too worn to be reused, ask at your local Salvation Army if they still need them. Someone at our Salvation Army, for instance, collects such stuff and sells it by the ton to a company who shreds it up and turns it into mattresses. Chances are there are such opportunities around. Just keep these donations separate from the wearable clothing, and be sure to let the Salvation Army know what you're giving them.
4. Do you have a Green Building Store in your area? We have a store where you can purchase salvaged household building supplies. If you're ripping out cupboards, getting rid of carpet, changing faucets, or anything like that, you may be able to drop it off at such a store. You never know who may find it useful!
5. Ask around about what people involved in missions would like. We're collecting yarn and towels, for instance, for a trip we're taking in March to Africa. We've started a knitting microbusiness program with some graduated girls from a children's home, and we're bringing a lot of that old acrylic yarn everyone buys from WalMart and then never does anything with. We're taking a ton of knitting needles and crochet hooks, too. If you have old craft supplies, see if someone on short term missions projects can use them.
Often schools have knitting programs, and they may be able to use craft supplies. You can also try churches with clubs groups during the week, or Boys and Girls after school clubs that are always looking for things for the kids to do. Some of them would surely love old construction paper, or markers, or yarn, or whatever.
Senior citizens homes and retirement homes often are eager for craft supplies (and sometimes even more eager for people to come in and start a knitting project with them). So if you have knitting/crocheting things you don't use, you may be able to get rid of them that way.
6. Have furniture you're willing to get rid of for free? Try putting a notice in your church bulletin, or putting up a notice in your local grocery store or local community college. Someone's sure to want it!
7. Finally, don't forget about ways to reuse things you already have. I've taken old flannel pyjamas and fleece sweatshirts and sewn them into sanitary pads to take to Africa. I know it sounds gross, but take a look at these pictures:
You can read instructions in this post on how to make them.
And I've also taken old sweaters that are out of fashion or that I don't like anymore and reclaimed the yarn.
Here's a sweater that was too small:
I'll write a separate post, with pictures, on how I got the yarn, but suffice it to say that I have seven pink skeins of wool that I'm excited to turn into something new!
I've even covered pillows that were ugly with a new cover that I've knit. Hey, it uses up yarn and an old pillow!
8. Don't forget about regifting. But I don't just mean giving away gifts you've been given. Lots of things can be transformed into gifts. Old mugs can be stuffed with homemade chocolate truffles. Wicker baskets, napkins, or tea towels make great gifts, too. Just stuff them with homemade cookies or buns, and you have a housewarming gift! So just because your mugs don't work for you anymore, or you have too many teacups, don't get rid of them! Keep them and use them as gifts.
9. Remember consignment stores or second hand stores. Many places will pay you $1 for a DVD or a CD. Great way to purge some of those collections. Others will pay you 20% of the cover price on paperbacks. So don't just throw out your old books. See if you can turn them into money.
I think that's it! But if you have any other great ideas on what to do with older things if you don't want to fill landfill, do leave them in the comments! And if you feel inspired now to clean up one of your cluttered spaces, why not take before and after photos and leave the link in this post? Then we all can congratulate you!
Hello Org Junkie readers! Great to see you here! Why not stay and look around a bit? I've got lots of posts on marriage, parenting, and more!
Sorry posting has been light! We're still in Maui enjoying a vacation, although I didn't do so well today. We were taking a 50 mile long, winding road to Hana drive, with waterfalls, bamboo forests, and lots of natural wonders. But because of the windy part of it, I took a Gravol so I wouldn't get carsick. And it worked! Unfortunately, it knocked me out so I slept straight for three hours and didn't see a thing after our first stop at the waterfall. Pretty pathetic.
Anyway, one of the fun things that we enjoy when we're away is watching television, since we don't have one at home. We go crazy and watch it nonstop (when we're not in the ocean), concentrating on What Not to Wear and Clean House or Clean Sweep. We just love these makeover shows, whether it's making over a person or making over a house. My daughters and I are glued to the television and enjoying every minute of it!
Clean House, though, has really opened my eyes to how a lot of families live. For those of you who haven't seen the show, basically you go into a house where the people live in piles of clutter. It's disgusting, and it really impacts the family life.
I want to talk clutter later this week, but one theme that seems to keep coming up in some of the episodes we watch, and that's women feeling as if they're hopeless about getting their children to do chores. "They never clean up! They see me cleaning, but they never help, and finally I give up because it's not worth the hassle and arguments they give me!"
Where did women ever get the idea that they were this hopeless? They are the MOTHERS. They can make their children clean up. But somehow we have this idea that we no longer have authority over our children. So instead of giving them orders and instruction, we ask them. And then they say no and whine and complain. Why give children choices when it comes to cleaning? That's ridiculous! They're part of the family, and children need to learn to contribute.
We've always tied chores with allowance, and the children, from the time they were 3, had specific chores they had to do. At this point they can now clean the whole house, though they may not do as good a job as I do. But they know how.
If you're struggling with your children, much of it may be your attitude. Don't doubt yourself. You are the mother. God gave you the role of authority over your children. Authority is a bad word these days, but it shouldn't be. Children should obey. It teaches them limits, and it teaches them responsibility and necessary skills. You are doing your children a favour when you make them obey.
So pair chores with consequences. If they don't do chores, they don't use the computer, or the television, or the phone. Their iPod is confiscated. They can't go to that birthday party. They don't get taken out for ice cream this week. They don't get their allowance. You don't have to yell and fight and get in a tizzy about it. You can just tell them calmly what is expected, and what the consequence is for non-compliance. And then follow through. You should not be cleaning the whole house yourself, if your children are over 3. And you should never feel hopeless and helpless when it comes to your kids.
You do have authority! So buck up! God can help you exercise it appropriately. And life is so much better for everyone when you do!
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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