Today’s post is by my lovely staff writer Jordann. She is getting married this week!
I haven’t been a very good minimalist lately.
It’s not that I don’t want to be, my desire to live a minimalist life is as strong or stronger than it’s ever been before.
The problem is, I don’t have time to be as minimalistic as I’d like. I’m getting married this weekend, and to save on costs and help me achieve my dream of being debt free, we’re DIYing everything. That means that I’ve been going pretty much non stop for about a month now.
What does this have to do with minimalism, you might ask?
Well, when there’s no time, there’s no spring cleaning, no decluttering, no yard sales. There’s no once weekly sweep of the house, removing everything that has built up in the past seven days.
There’s no time to spend an entire, glorious afternoon organizing the bookshelf so that is can function more efficiency as storage space.
So, over the past few months, my house has slowly been filling up with stuff, and some of the stuff that I initially put in storage when we moved in last May, has started to haunt my dreams.
Here are a few areas of my home that have become particularly cluttered. Hopefully once the wedding is over, I’ll have time to actually clean them out, instead of just enough time to blog about them.
The Garage
I live in a 400 sq. ft. house, but it also has a garage. That is great for me because when I moved from the big city into the furnished house, I brought some furniture with me, and put it in storage, in the garage. I don’t use any of the stuff in there, so why do I have it?
Some of the stuff is useful, that I’d like to hang on to until we have a chance to move into a slightly larger space. Some of the stuff, however, is completely useless to me and I can’t wait until I can get rid of it. Things like text books that I haven’t cracked in years, a broken dresser, a bunch of wall hangings that were cool about four years ago, etc. Once the wedding is over, I plan on getting rid of* 90% of the stuff in my garage.
The Laundry Room
We’re very lucky that our laundry room has an entire wall of storage in it. The problem is, it’s not being used very efficiently right now. At least 30% of the stuff in there could be removed or reorganized to make better use of the space.
The Entertainment Unit
Aka: the “catch-all” unit. It’s not just home to things entertainment related, but has basically become a great place to hide everything that doesn’t really have a home in my living room. At least 50% of the stuff in there could be tossed, and the other 50% could be reorganized to take up about a quarter of the space it’s currently occupying!
I’m fairly certain I’m not wrong in saying that these areas of my home are problem areas not just for me, but for everyone. Staying on top of clutter can be tough especially when other life events take over!
So, I’d love to hear YOUR clutter confessions.
What’s the most cluttered part of your house?
Do you have a room that you just close the door on and try to forget about?
Are there boxes in your basement you haven’t opened in five years?
* When I say “get rid of” “toss” or “trash” I really mean either: sell, donate, or put in the garbage. I always try to save as much of my stuff as possible from the landfill!
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