Enough is enough!

Today I felt completely overwhelmed by all the STUFF that we have stashed in our house. The combination of Christmas and both of my kids' birthdays within 3 weeks has made it seem like a toy store exploded in our house. They actually do play with these toys. Yes not each of them, everyday, but in the course of a week, most of the toys have had their 15 minutes of fame and will be shelved until their turn comes again the following week. And my boys truly do have fun playing with each of them. Yes, it's excessive but most of the gifts came from their grandparents, many from their aunt and uncles, and still more from my friends whose kids are older than mine and were probably going through the same "toy store explosion" feeling when they asked if we wanted them.

But while the toys take up their fair share of space in our house, I realized that the toys are NOT the problem. It's the stuff that never found a home and was shoved into a closet, it's the clothes I still have from my days in the working world (and even before that), it's the stuff that got pushed to the back of the pantry and replaced with a duplicate cause we couldn't see the original anymore. It's the countless kitchen gadgets and accessories that we registered for our wedding that have rarely, if ever been used. I mean really, does anyone actually buy a strawberry huller for themselves or are they all purchased as a gift off of someones wedding registry? And does anyone use that thing more than once? I tried it on 2 strawberries and quickly realized that my paring knife does the trick better and quicker!

Problem is this.....when I realized that the dumb strawberry huller is useless, it should've been purged from my house. But, I can tell you with certainty, that 3 years later, the strawberry huller is still in the utensils drawer in the kitchen. This is the pattern for me. It happens with many, many of the things that we own. The shoes in my closet are another great example. I have several pairs that the only time they have ever been worn is for about 10 minutes while I'm getting ready to run out the door and then decide the shoes are uncomfortable and change into a different pair that I favor more. Shouldn't those shoes find a new home?

So today I've made a New Year's Resolution (yes, I know I'm a bit late). I will purge my home of the things that I don't need, use, love or in some cases, even like. I am going to strive to be decluttered and fairly organized by 2012. I am going to blog about it to hold myself accountable and to be able to track my own progress. Along the way, I will probably have some funny stories to share and hope that the blog process makes it a little fun, not just work!