A Summer to Declutter

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As I frantically shoved things in closets (and the garage, and the basement…) in anticipation for a photoshoot with our hometown paper (the Philadelphia Inquirer, whaaaat?!) I came to a realization.  Y’all.  My house is filled to the brim with STUFF.  And stuff in my house means stuff in my brain, because I can not concentrate with clutter everywhere.  And what do we have right now?  CLUTTER.  EVERYWHERE.

And toys.

And clothes.

And books.

And… it doesn’t even matter.  There’s just stuff.  EVERYWHERE.

{the previously mentioned shoving-stuff-into-the-closet-thing:}

Summer to Declutter

I came to the conclusion that we could easily and very happily live with 1/3 less.  We have lots because we are fortunate to receive lots from friends and family, and I also have a tad little shopping addiction.  If I like something, I tend to buy two of them so I always have it on hand.  I love a good bargain.  And also I love shoes.  In addition I’m sentimental, so I’ve held onto things that should have been recycled years ago.  Case in point?  These shoeboxes.

Summer to Declutter

They are so teeny tiny and cute.  I’ll never have a child wear a size 5 shoe again, or have a shoe box that tiny again.  Surely I can find a use for them!  All of them!  {see where my brain goes?}

I need to simplify.  Weeding out the extras means I’ll save what we WANT or what we NEED or what we LOVE.  Sounds like a plan, right?

In anticipation of an epic yard sale later this summer (and donating the rest) I’m determined to get rid of 1/3 of our stuff.  This is going to be my mantra:

Rules for Decluttering

I want to dig through every closet, every drawer, and each corner of my garage.  I want to purge it all, weed it out, and be left with air to breathe.  It might take all summer, and I don’t want it to take over our summer plans, so I’m going to do it gradually with a goal of being done by labor day.

Does anyone else feel suffocated with things?  Loaded down by stuff?  Home bursting at the seams?

I’m ready.  Let’s do this thing.

So as not to bog down the blog or bore everyone with how many bags of stuff I clean out from my daughter’s closet (SIX BAGS, FRIENDS!  Six. Bags.)  I’m going to keep the conversation going with a weekly check-in on Facebook.  Be sure to ‘like’ the Making Lemonade Facebook page to join in the fun and share your goal for the week (and/or your most recent decluttering accomplishments).

Since I’m also addicted to Instagram, let’s continue the fun over there.  Snap pics of your befores, your afters, your decluttering accomplishments, your worst clutter nightmares, WHATEVER and hashtag them #SummerToDeclutter and @MakingLemonade.  I’ll keep up with them and choose one at random this fall to get a special prize, handpicked by me.  I promise the prize won’t be any of my old clutter.  If you’re not on Instagram, hopefully that will be the push you need to do it– it’s so much fun over there!

I want to bare my soul– and my clutter– for the world to see.

Perhaps that’ll be what I need to finally do something about it.

Who’s with me?

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