I've decided...

So I’m gonna do it.  Next month, which starts tomorrow, I will start my 31 day purge.  No, not of my body (though that might be nice) I’m going through my house and purging it of anything unnecessary. 

It has been a long time goal of mine to live life holding material things loosely.  To be fair to myself I really am not a saver I don’t go through things and say ‘oh I might need this’ more than likely I’ll say ‘I forgot about that, oh well if I need it again I can buy another one.’  Because really, if you’ve forgotten you had something, and let me be clear here, YOU DIDN’T NEED IT. 

However, things still accumulate and while I get days when I just throw away everything in sight those are few and far between.  Except lately.  Yes since the birth of that precious baby boy Thaddeus I have realized how much junk we have that we don’t use nor need that is taking up precious space.

We have less than 1200 square feet with 7 people.  I have always (and I mean for as long as I can remember always) wanted to live in a small house.  I love how it makes us closer as a family…there is no way you can go an entire day without seeing each other.  You have to forgive and forget quickly because really who wants to share tight quarters with someone bitter and grumpy?  On the days that the space constraints get to me I remind myself that in India there would easily be another 5-10 people living in the same sized space.

So while I love our small home full of big love keeping things make it really hard.  So I have to go through everything every now and then and August is my self-determined month to do so.  Some of our stuff is truly garbage and isn’t worth saving for anyone and some of it is worthy of donating. 

So let’s get to the nuts and bolts of my idea.  Of course with anything this monumental you’ve gotta have some rules so here they are:

-      1 bag of trash or 1 box of things to get rid of a day…kudos for multiple bags and boxes a day but bottom line get rid of at least 1 box or bag

-      I will not open a box or bag after it is closed up!  This is so important because if I second guess myself I’ll get rid of nothing.  Which leads into the next rule…

-      First responses only!  I won’t think about it, just grab a bag or box and just start tossing garbage or goodwill…my absolute first response as to what I want to do with the stuff.

-      I will take garbage out immediately and put boxes to Goodwill my car (well suburban).

-      Finally I will only spend 20 minutes each day doing this!  I don’t want to overwhelm myself with the largeness of this task.

There are my rules.  However, to achieve goals you need more than rules to maintain motivation but also reinforcement of your progress.  Apparently I did actually learn something from my psychology class!  So besides having more fun with these precious kids: 

Each week when I take my week’s worth of donation to Goodwill I will stop off at the Service Station and get myself a delicious coffee beverage and will enjoy fifteen minutes (or more if I’m lucky) of that $4 beverage because I earned it (really if you do the math 20 minutes times 7 equals 140 minutes or 2 hours and 20 minutes, which means I’ll be working for way less than minimum wage).  Because it is more than likely I’ll have all five of the kiddos with me on this excursion I might just take them to the park to play and enjoy some time knitting :)

If I have completely my goal I will then get to do what I really want to do: paint rooms (yes plural) in my house.  Perhaps this is really the motivation behind my desire, but really I need to do some serious decorating for the kiddos.  I’ve got paint and ideas galore all that needs to be done is to clean things up so I can get to it.

Well there it is.  My mini book of my goal, so check back next month to see my progress…and if this has inspired you well then join me.  I’d love it if you did.