My Middle Name

I hate clutter....but you would never know it by the way my house looks. I think "clutter" should be my middle name! When I set my mind to it, I do really well at getting rid of clutter. The problem is keeping it in check. It seems that I no sooner get something cleaned up when...in no time at all, it looks like it did before I decluttered. It reminds me of how all the pennies end up at the bottom of my purse. It's like they have babies in there! Truth be told, there are 4 other bodies in this house that contribute to this...um....issue and apparently we were all born with this same "gene".

Tonight, while I was waiting for dinner to cook, I decided to try decluttering a particularly bad area of my house! Does anyone else have an area like this....

It seems that my microwave is a magnet for junk! If something ends up on the kitchen counter and it needs to be moved....it all ends up on top of the microwave. I'm not even sure how the darn thing still works with all that stuff on top of it. I'm sure there is some fire code that is being broken here! Here's a closer look.

There are pens and pencils, a wedding invitation, EOB's from my health insurance company, GO FISH game, old issue of Magnifikid, alphabet flash cards, chore chart stickers, batteries, St. Nicholas prayer cards and cookie cutter, garlic roaster and a 2lb box of Sees Candy that my friend Cindy sent me for Christmas.....among other things. Sigh. And here's what's on top....

When I took a look up there, I was amazed! Along with the inch of dust...there is...glue, an old candle, fish food, fish tank filters and scooper, flashlights, pencil sharpener, more dust, bud vase, several plastic cups, flea medicine for the animals and two pretty ugly baskets....oh, and more dust. Frankly, this is in the kitchen and it's disgusting! I mean, I cook food in here! It's no wonder we don't all have lung disease.

Anyway...I worked hard and here is the results....

Good job wouldn't you say??? Ah, but...where did all the junk go you ask? Good question! A lot of it went into the trash...if it was old, didn't work or had expired...it got chucked. Some things got put where they were supposed to be all along....like photo albums, file folders and toy boxes. Here's the clincher....I cannot tell a lie....some clutter.....just got put into a different clutter pile. How does this happen? It's weird, my intentions were good and pure, but....I'm just not able to take it to the next level, as they say.

Before Christmas, I was reading a decluttering book (see this post) and I'm almost finished with it. I quit reading it because as I moved along in my chemo treatments, decluttering was just not on my radar as much. Obviously, I need to pick it up again. Sometimes I feel as though the walls are closing in on me...and I know part of it is because there is just so much junk laying around that I'm starting to feel claustrophobic. Since I'm beginning to get back on my feet physically, I'm feeling pretty positive about making the effort to pare down...to begin to examine our lives and live as simply as we can. This is going to entail many things...some will be easy and some will be really difficult...but this is something that am COMMITTED to doing! At least once a month, I will show you, my blogging friends, another area of my home that I'm going to get in line. It might be a drawer, it might be a cupboard or it might be a whole room! The way I figure it, if I do this every month...by January of 2010....I should have 12 areas decluttered! This will be a good thing (so long as I'm not adding clutter to other places!).

My goal in life is to be the best mother and wife that I can be....to provide for my family the way the Blessed Mother did. I'll never be able to meet that goal totally...because there is sin in my life....but I truly want our lives to be modeled after the Holy Family.

Pray for me in these goals...and I will pray for you in yours!