Organized and Ready to Go

As mentioned in previous blogs, I have been spending time organizing my house and my life.  As I do this, I have established a lot more margin in my life.  I didn't realize just how much I was in need of that.  It has made me a much more pleasant person.

It was quite a process and in the midst of it, I wondered how one family could have accumulated so much stuff.  I began to make piles in areas of the house.  I had a pile to go straight to the garbage, a pile to donate immediately, and a pile for ebay.  I categorized all items in the last two piles, but with the last pile I also took pictures and started the bidding at what seemed to be the average for the items. 

I started this before Christmas and with my girls approval, sold a good bit of toys as Christmas gifts.  I would love to say it went smoothly but it didn't.  Most went off without a hitch, but some snafus occurred.  Over-all, the experience has been really profitable and smooth.  My home has less clutter, but I am still hanging onto a great deal of memorabilia.  Some times you just want to know what will be meaningful to keep, and what is just taking up space.

I am a sentimental old fool.  Memories can get tapped in me by the oddest of items.  I kept some of my granny's dresses she gave me and a few my mom always wore.  Just seeing them takes me back to  wonderful memories.

So needless to say I have items around the house that mean nothing to anyone but me and I think that is ok. 

There comes a point where I have figure out how to manage all these random memories, and usually it comes in the form of storage. 

After all the remodeling efforts of our home thru about 5 phases, my storage area had gotten so out of control.  So during the Christmas holidays while most of the Christmas decorations and containers were out of the area, I decided I would not put the decorations back up until the area was organized and decluttered.

I am proud to say that I was able to put the decorations from Christmas away after the New Year. Oh what a great feeling.

Once that was complete it was on to the freezers. I organized my pantry, refrigerator/freezers.  I also found a website emeals.com that has been helping me plan meals for dinner.  It is amazing to discover what you have when you take time to organize it.  The organization of the freezer helped me plan my trips to the grocery store better as well.

All it took was time and determination.  I can tell you it gave me a great deal of peace.