If you're anything like me you spend more time planning your New Years Resolutions than actually doing them. I like to blog about it, plan it all out, make lists so I can feel accomplished when checking things off but then never actually do it. This coming year we are bringing a new baby into our home, a small three bedroom home, and we really have to crack down on organization and clutter. We seriously are some of the most organized people I know, thank you Type A personality and OCD. However, I feel like everywhere I look there's something I don't need... extra spatula's, girls leggings that won't go with one single shirt they have so they're useless. We overbuy in bulk because we got a sale or a good deal, sure it saves us money but then my sanity goes out the window when I open the storage closet and 20 rolls of toilet paper, 50 bars of soap and extra shampoo fall out. I have prom dresses, bridesmaids dresses, shoes I won't ever wear again now that I am a mom and can't rock 5 inch heels. I have pots and pans I will never use, platters, extra blankets that aren't my style but I keep for a cold day... I need to get rid of all of it! So, if you're in need of any of that let me know - I will gladly send it your way so I don't have to make ten trips to the donation bins.
I've been listening to podcasts and it's really helping me simplify my home and mind these last few months. I've realized that God will give us what we need, He will provide my family everything we need that we haven't even asked for. I have felt so much better about being simple and not needing 5 of every item in the girls closets, 5 of every kind of measuring cup, etc.
The Purposeful Home podcast talks about choosing a word for your New Years Resolution instead of listing off resolutions that you'll never complete. They speak about living by your word and if you do that you'll be happier, feel more complete and have an overall better year. To do lists are stressful. To do lists are ONE more thing, or ten, we feel stressed about needing to complete in time for our resolutions to be over and thennnn we can feel happier, more content. In my eyes, it's all about choosing something that you know is doable, choosing something that brings JOY and HAPPINESS.
My word for 2017: SIMPLE
Simple: free of complication, free from vanity, free from ostentation or display.
Just SIMPLE. I want a simple home, simple, clean, clutter free home, life, car, playroom, bedrooms, closets, drawers, bookshelves, garage, shed, etc. Just SIMPLIFY my life and I will be less stressed, more content and HAPPIER. I know, that by choosing a word instead of a to do list or setting an unrealistic goal I will be a more simple minded, happier mom, wife and overall better person.
That being said, in order to make my life more simple I did make a to do list... because that's what TYPE A, OCD people do, right? It's not unachievable it's just things that in order to make my life happier, clutter free and simpler I need to complete prior to my resolution beginning. So, this is my to do over Christmas break list...
Playroom: We have an overabundance of TOYS. We have learning games, card games, board games, puzzles, blocks, and about 5 of each kind of toy. I think that's excessive. I need to simplify and let them pick their favorite things. I know which ones they play with, which ones they don't. A lot of it is hand me downs and just clutter, taking up space that we don't have once baby comes. I am happy to donate toys to make room for baby, especially ones the girls won't miss!
Goal: Organize everything in containers. All the toys need a home. Donate toys they won’t use.
Closets/Clothing: This year I redid the girls' closet, I got rid of the dresser and changed it all into cube storage with a bench on top. I donated a TON of clothes that didn't match anything, or fell into the category of "mom, I don't like wearing those jeans that itch me". I love donating things to kids in need, so this was a win-win! For me, I am certainly not disciplined enough for a capsule wardrobe although, the idea sounds fabulous and right up my alley. I like lots of leggings, hoodies and comfies and get caught up in the sales of my favorite things a lot. Nordstrom sucks me in, and I follow the Living In Yellow blog and she always posts a good deal that I always find myself convincing Dan, "I have to have this". Don't judge, we've all been guilty of it! I need to get rid of things I haven't worn in the last 6 months to a year, things I don't love and things that don't spark joy. I also recently talked to a trusty friend, blogger, and real life internet friend, Jillian over at Hey Jillian. She helped me so much with finding my style and that led me to a Pinterest board, and deleting most of my closet that didn't fit into my Yin-Dramatic wardrobe or love of comfies. (If you haven't read her blog you NEED to! Go click that link right now... or after you finish reading this works too). I read somewhere that you should be able to tell your husband to go into your closet, pick anything and you'd be happy wearing it out on a date night. I can't trust him to do that right now, not because he doens't have good style, but only because I have bad style in old clothes, clothes I am saving for when I lose 10 lbs, clothes I loved when I wore everything from The Buckle. I need to just donate it and get it over with. So I need to donate things out of everyone's closets that we just won’t wear. PS: this is probably the third time I have done it this year and I am super excited about it because I get rid of more and more each time.
Goal: only keep simple, matching, & versatile clothing for everyone. If it doesn't spark JOY, doesn't fit or I wanted to keep for that magic ten pounds to fall off it leaves the house.
Bedding: We have an entire closet in the hallway that's being taken up by sheets and bedding that we don't need! I only need to keep two sets per bed in the house, donate old crib sheets and sets that we won't use or don't like. I kind of feel childish keeping all of my printed snowflake sheets. It's time to be an adult, right?
Goal: Donate old, and ugly, bedding.
Kitchen: This is where my weakness falls. I like to shop for kitchen utensils, especially now that Joanna Gaines is in Target... weakness overload! I love Pampered Chef, and eventually plan to change out most of what I can to their line. However, that means throwing away the old stuff when I get the new, which is hard to do.
Goal: clean out all of the drawers, toss old cook wear that's not safe to use, or burnt beyond recognizing the color anymore, donate nicer things we won’t use like duplicate spatula’s and serving spoons, nice serving trays from our wedding... that never have been used. Oh, and save up for some nice new pots and pans!
Living room: We don't have much in the living room that's clutter. We have a huge bookshelf, and we use ALL of those books. I don't think I could part with any of them. I need to get into the TV cabinet, organize movies, match up all the DVD cases, and clean out the junk electronics drawer. We have an entire drawer full of chargers, cords, etc. that just need to have a home or go.
Goal: get rid of junk we don't use, or that doesn't have a purpose... like that old calculator that I used for math in high school. Anyone need it?
Bathrooms: I seriously have too many products and this year I have been working on narrowing down my routine (makeup, face, hair) to some trusty products I just can't live without. That's really hard to do when you've been pregnant three times and your skin needs different methods of love and moisturizing routine at different times. I have accumulated a lot of crap over the years that's probably expired or I just don't remember I have it. So, my goal is to go through all of that, narrow my routine down, get it all consolidated into one area and donate.
Goal: donate all old blow dryers, hair products, seriously quit over buying in bulk or quit buying new products when my old ones aren't gone yet.
Cleaning/over flow storage closet: We have this closet in the hallway that's filled with cleaning things i.e; vacuum swiffer, steam mop, steam cleaner. But the other half of the closet is filled with our dress clothes that don't get worn but a couple of times a year. Seriously, where do you keep those items? They certainly don't fit in the one closet we share in our room. So, we have suits, dresses, special occasion gowns, bridesmaid dresses, ugh... the list goes on.
Goal: Donate old clothes, dresses, organize baskets, store old picture frames in trunk downstairs.
Basement: The basement is a catch-all for junk, things we don't use and then forget about and it really could be a great area for family movie time, games, parties, if we just cleaned it up and gave it a face lift without spending money. The problem is, it's split off into sections: the storage area for old clothes from the girls which consists of over 5 totes of clothing, gift storage closet/seasonal decor, food overflow (canned/boxed), and then the other side is a play area with MORE toys the kids don't ever play with, and my painting, sawing, craft area with more clutter. It's a headache.
Goal:
Organize girls clothing totes in basement, donate things I wont use for baby #3 or London.
I think I literally have seven or eight totes in the basement with girls clothes that are from 2012-2013 when Lennon was little that sure, yes they're great but the baby will likely never wear them. Organize and donate things we don’t use: Girls clothing totes, cookwear, paint cabinet, tools, baby toys.
Alright, I will likely add more to this, mentally, as I go along and just this morning through writing this and taking little breaks I got a TON done. I need hubby's truck and his muscles to lift the boxes I have already filled in the basement!!! This is fun!
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Healthier in 2018
- No more plastic bags! I have to admit that we are really bad at being wasteful and bad for the environment. We literally use plastic for everything every time we go to the grocery store, even Aldi's reusable bags are plastic so when they wear down and get ripped we often toss them. We use plastic produce bags, meat bags, grocery bags, reusable grocery bags. We find that we end up using them for easy clean up of dog poop in the yard, poopy diapers, cleaning up messes, throwing away large items, etc. and in reality we end up throwing a lot of them away in the regular trash instead of recycling them like we should. I bought some biodegradable dog waste bags in bulk that we can use for diapers, walks with the dogs and poop in the yard too. I don't feel guilty about throwing those away since they're biodegradable. Diapers in landfills are awful and of course the chemicals aren't the best but we've tried the cloth route and it's soooo not for the faint of heart. Once Lon started solids I packed them up and I was done! So, overall I feel good about the little changes we are making to help out the world. We will buy more reusable cloth bags that we can wash and reuse for produce and groceries.
- I literally, just today, changed over my deodorant to an all natural, made in USA, aluminum free deodorant that actually has good reviews to work and not be irritating to your skin. After trying many and them totally failing me, I'm super excited to try the Native brand recommended by a good friend. Thanks, Kacy!
- We are super excited to reduce our grocery bill from unnecessary wasteful things and make more room for more organic produce and meats. We already buy 90% of our produce organic and we have our freezer stocked with farm raised chicken but we really need to focus on less red meat, and the meat we do buy making sure it's organic, antibiotic, harmful chemical free. I want to start focusing on meal planning a lot more so we can cut down on how much food we waste, making more of our own foods and dressings that we often use and waste the end of the bottle too. I am most excited for baking my own bread to cut down on waste. We throw away so much bread because we don't eat it that often before it goes bad, and we don't really like it all that much anyway. I would much rather make our own!
A healthier 2018 for us also means spending more time with the kids and family and literally, just unplugging. We are going to stop posting everyyyyything on social media, and seriously cut back on TV/movie/iPad/iPod time. We won't be over-posting, commenting or sharing, instead we will be present in our kids lives and they'll be present in ours instead of in their iPads and TV and if you are curious about what's going on in our lives instead of following us on social media, follow us in real life and make yourselves present. It's really that simple. We finally took the TV out of our bedroom recently due to my friend's recommendation a long time ago. It's amazing how much it really helps us fall asleep, improves our sleep quality, we talk more, and actually spend more time together. We don't stay up late unless we are watching one of our favorite shows a couple of times a week, and we have been reading a lot more. Overall, I don't regret it one bit. You & Me Forever, by Francis and Lisa Chan, is a great book to start reading with your spouse on marriage, it's replaced our TV time for quality, bonding and marriage building time together and I highly recommend it. We really love it!
Anyway, Happy New Year! Good luck with your own resolutions and most of all... unplug and keep it simple!
XO, K.