Clutter Cleanse

I have been on a getting-rid-of-clutter rampage for the last couple of weeks. My brother and his family are coming to stay from the UK for Spring break, so I’m sort of looking at our home through their super-minimalist eyes and getting more horrified by the minute. How did we wind up with all this stuff?

My husband will be quick to tell you that “Miss Gorgeously Green” isn’t averse to a shopping trip, but I’ve really put the spending breaks on over the past few years, dedicating myself to DIY whenever possible, and still we have all this STUFF!

I started with my daughter’s room, to whom I promised a room-makeover  before Spring Break. Most of the furniture had become “embarrassingly babyish,” in her eyes, and almost being a teen (she’s NINE!) had to be disposed of. Mercifully, I have a wonderful handyman who loaded some white zero-VOC paint into a sprayer contraption and managed to transform her bookcase and chest completely, covering all teddy bears, bows and ballerina’s in the process. The only new thing I had to buy was a bed, which is a whole other story for a separate post. The most alarming thing, however, was the sheer volume of clutter that we had to get rid of.

We are not hoarders by any stretch of the imagination, but kids tend to accumulate so much stuff. I’m quite convinced it was different when I was a kid. I know we can all look back to the good old days, but honestly, getting a new pair of shoes when I was a little girl, was a major happening. A new party dress or something “fashionable” as a teen, was a cause for celebration. Not so with today’s kids because  moms can  pop into any one of the ubiquitous mega-malls across America and are able to buy pretty much everything on the cheap – almost nothing is made in the U.S. and most items are only designed to last for a year tops.

The horrifying thing is that most of these cheaply-made items will end up in the landfill. I had to throw away a rug that my daughter had pleaded me to buy her when she was 5. If I had stuck to my guns and insisted on the more expensive and eco-friendly wool version that I had my eye on, we’d have kept it forever, or I could have had it cleaned and passed it on to someone in need – but the acrylic fiber, pink- nasty- thing with hearts on it, was only good for the large pit in the earth!

After my daughter’s room I tackled the other closets in the house. I think my PMS must have got the better of me as I turned into a manic clutter-clearer. My husband got scared,”don’t go crazy throwing away stuff we might need later,” he cautioned, as I filled up the my fifth giant recycled trash bag. But I did go crazy because I was just staggered at how much we’d accumulated, and I comparing myself to the “Restoration Hardware-style” closets that my sister-in-law has in their GIANT home!! It doesn’t help that she’s an interior decorator with a living room, which looks like something out of Interiors or Modern Home magazine.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll go crazy if I see another magazine spread about how-to-get-organized, where the photographs have been styled within an inch of their life. Those Real Simple type of articles, where the photo shows a close-up of a perfectly organized kitchen drawer with the perfect organizational expert, standing by, with perfectly shiny nails, pointing at her perfectly organized life!

I’m inspired for a minute, go on a rampage, let everyone know in the house that from now on pens have to live in this section of the kitchen drawer, Post-it notes in a clearly marked section, keys and paperclips etc in that handy-little Altoid tin and so I go on. My husband, and now daughter, look faintly amused, as they annoyingly know that it just a matter of days, the drawer will be stuffed with business cards, loose change, rubber bands, lip balms and a host of other stuff that belongs somewhere else. Is this just me?

I’m now done with the clear-out and feel so much lighter and clearer. How long can it stay this way though? The main thing that I have realized is that good as I am about only buying items that will last (pink acrylic rug aside,) I can get a whole lot better. The biggest motivation that’s come out of this clean-out is that it will take my mantra of “do we really need it,” to a whole new level.

While I’m on my case about too much STUFF, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching this little movie called, The Story of Stuff.

BTW, I sorted all my clutter out into four massive bags: one for shoes, one for clothes, one for old bedding and towels, and one for toys. This way I can donate them to the appropriate places, and assuage my guilt by keeping as much out of the landfill as possible.

Shoes: Sports Chalet have joined with the amazing organization Souls4Souls to get shoes to victims of the Japan Earthquake. You can drop off gently worn shoes at your local Sport’s Chalet.

Bedding: Local Vets and Animal Shelters always need them.

Sports Equipment: Free Cycle

Furniture, Baby Furniture & Gently Worn kid’s clothes: etc: Salvation Army