Decluttering Progress for May

People are acting like it’s already June. Although I don’t believe it for one minute, I’m going to play along.

Amy at The Finer Things in Life is again hosting her monthly decluttering update. I really love to participate in these and look back over my progress (or lack thereof) for the past month.

May was the month of my garage sale. Because of it, I was motivated to do some major last-ditch decluttering. I even entered the playroom, which I generally pretend doesn’t exist. I got rid of (either in the trash or to put in the garage sale) ahem . . . lots of stuff in the dumping-ground-cabinet. And I also consider it decluttering to have unearthed a few things like movies we’ve never watched, but want to, and puzzles that are now being played with. Taking things out of a pointless pile of clutter into a purposeful existence is getting rid of clutter, right?

I also cleared the clutter off of my handy-dandy over-the-door drying rack in the laundry room. Even though this was literal “in-your-face” clutter, I had managed to ignore it successfully since last summer (evidenced by the swimsuits “drying” there) using my Super-Selective-Slob-Vision.

I got rid of quite a few cookbooks, and finally grasped a truly mind-changing concept that I think will carry me far in this deslobification process. While I used to have no idea what organized people meant when they advised that you remove one item for every item you bring in, I finally get it now.

I carried this concept of establishing boundaries into my linen closet. I accepted that having such an excess of sheets, towels, etc. was not a blessing. It was keeping me from enjoying them, or even being able to find any when I needed them! A big-old-pile went into the garage sale.

And then there was my purse. Nothing for the garage sale in there, just a bunch of trash. But boy is it nice to have so much weight off of my shoulder (literally), and a lesser chance of things flying out of it when I buy something at the baseball concession stand.

And, I’m ending my list by acknowledging that while it’s probably best to err on the side of getting rid of something, I can’t get rid of everything. I’m keepin‘ my mannequin!

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’m re-thinking my mindset for summertime. With the kids home, I’m making it my goal to focus on maintaining the progress I’ve made since starting the blog. Hopefully a little decluttering will occur here and there, but it’s more important to keep the house livable.

I do have one crazy idea for dealing with my clothes-are-clutter issues that I’m hoping to get going on tomorrow. Stay tuned for that. It’s definitely drastic measures!

Head on over to The Finer Things in Life to check out more decluttering progress, or link up your own!