For those of you who are familiar with how Texas weather has been, you'll know the word "rain" is something highly prayed for around here, but seldom happens, at least for this summer. The blessed watery substance that hydrates the earth seems to have decided not to make it's presence known to the point where lakes seem to be drying up and forest fires are running rampant.
Starting yesterday, the skies decided to grace us with this stuff called rain. The kids and I sat and watched it in the windows for a while. Then we went out in it for a bit, just because every kid likes to play in the rain. We talked about the rain. We shared our thoughts. That's when the kids realized that rain is really kind of a downer. It's not nice outside, so you don't want to go play outside for long. You get wet and cold. It's dark and gloomy, so it means turning the lights on during the day just to see. You can't really take books and toys outside or they might get ruined. It's hard to play ball when it's raining. Most people don't even want to drive anywhere when the roads are slick and wet. It means they lose out on a lot of fun stuff.
With our massive house clean-up going on, we've been facing a lack of space, but it's been coming at a benefit to everyone, especially the kids. Our dining room table is buried under a mountain of stuff from the kitchen cabinets that all needs to be washed and put back. They boys room is full of boxes from the closet, so we've been having sleep over parties in my daughter's room. All the floors need to be mopped, the walls wiped down, and everything, but we haven't been as sharply on it as we should be because we've got so much stuff! It's meant everything we're able to do is severely limited (which leads to the kids fighting like cats and dogs). It's been rough with the rain on top of that.
However, even with all this rough stuff going on, my kids are kind of grateful for the clean up. Sure, for several days they're not going to have much space to play until we process through it all, clean it all, and get it all put away, but we're finding cool stuff as we go. I've found a completely blank drawing pad, which my daughter was very excited about. Hers is almost full. We found a new stock of markers that had been buried in a box. There were some toys they were looking for and couldn't seem to find. It seems like with every box we go through, not only are we finding new things that the kids love, but we're also condensing and getting rid of stuff we don't need to hang on to anymore. The kids love knowing we'll have more space in the house soon and they're enjoying all the fun stuff we're finding. It's like an archaeological dig!
Though it might be raining and miserable outside, we're still having our fun. We're exploring the depths of our own home. When we've finally cleared off the space for the kitchen stuff to go back, we'll have the space to work on art projects with all the new art supplies we've found. It's going to be wonderful!
While the weather might be dark and gloomy outside, I think this is the best rainy day we've had in years!
Showing posts with label clutter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clutter. Show all posts
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Finally Getting Organized
Things are starting to progress around here. Homeschooling is still a minor failure. Instead of doing traditional things, like writing, reading, and all of that, our lessons have come in bitty spurts as I've been feeling up to them. The weather changing seems to have brought on a good deal of joint pain, especially bringing back that severe pain that hit my knees at a festival nearly eight years ago. It's really slowed me down a lot, but I'm doing what I can. One of these days I'll actually have to go get a doctor to diagnose what's wrong with me, but they've been working on that for years, so I'm not too worried about seeing to it tomorrow or anything. One day at a time is all I can manage these days, so I'm just taking it slow. Right now getting settled and back into routine is more important than going through all the same tests over again because there's been problems with getting my medical files transferred.
Thankfully, some progress is being made. My partner and I have been hitting the room hard this weekend. Something needed to get done. The place was in total chaos. The whole house needs a lot of work, both on a maintenance and repair level and on a more normal cleaning and organizing kind of scheme. However, our room was starting to drive me nuts. We had furniture that needed moving so our books can go up on the shelf. We needed to move our bed, a desk, and so much more. Oh, just because I want to point this out, for the first time in a very long time I'm actually sitting at a desk while on my computer! It's such a nice change! We've still got one bookshelf to move and our bed to place and make again, but for the most part, it's really come a long way. The place is starting to look more like a home than a random place where everyone stores all of their stuff.
The first focus we had when we moved in was to set up a room for the kids. We wanted them to have some feeling of normal life back again. I wanted them to feel like they were really home and settle in. Isn't that just how moms are? They put the needs of their kids first, sometimes to the point of forgetting their own needs all together. That's kind of where I was at. I didn't stop to think how insane I was going at the state of my own room until I started to move things and get them in order.
I'll admit full well that I have problems with stress and anxiety. It's all too easy to get overwhelmed. Who doesn't in these days when the economy is bad and it seems like everywhere you turn the news is no better? However, I've always been a firm believer in the idea of hearth and home. Home should be the sanctuary for a family. It should be that one place they return to and always feel like they are supported, strong, and at peace. I'm finally getting to the point where I can have that again. It certainly took me long enough!
This also makes my life easier in a number of ways. My life can largely be conducted upstairs now. I can sit in my room at my computer to work. I can be upstairs with the children, using the desk in their room for homeschool. I don't have to worry near so much about going up and down stairs all day, something that gives my knees hell every time I do. Instead, I can spend much of my time upstairs and only come down for meals and social time. It allows me a quiet place to work too. Best of all, we just need a baby gate for the top of the stairs and I won't even have to worry about which rooms in the house will be baby-friendly! I know the room mates will probably find me quite antisocial, but I'm a very private person and I think I'll prefer it that way. Besides, they have their anti-social moments too (who doesn't) so I can only imagine they'll understand.
I'm really looking forward to the positive changes that are going on here. For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling like I'm actually home. That's not to say I couldn't be home with my other room mates or past living situations, but I'm starting to settle into that feeling of sanctuary, of knowing my space is my space and truly enjoying it for what it is. I have an arrangement that mostly works for the kids, my partner, and I, and that's what truly matters.
I know when things change in life it's hard to actually see it for what it is. I've learned a lot from the situations I've been in. I've been reminded again to pick my battles, know when to speak and when it's not important enough. I've learned to take a good deal of venting both about situations that involved me and ones that haven't. What I've learned most of all is that no matter where I make my home, unless I actually make it a home for my family, it will never be more than a roof over our heads and someplace to keep us warm. It's been a very long time since I've actually made a decent home for my family. It's even harder when living with other people. I think it's about time we have one again.
So it may be slow going, but we're getting there. This place is finally turning into a space I want to call home, and I think it's about time. I need somewhere I can settle in for a while. I'm really looking forward to the rest of our stay here now.
Thankfully, some progress is being made. My partner and I have been hitting the room hard this weekend. Something needed to get done. The place was in total chaos. The whole house needs a lot of work, both on a maintenance and repair level and on a more normal cleaning and organizing kind of scheme. However, our room was starting to drive me nuts. We had furniture that needed moving so our books can go up on the shelf. We needed to move our bed, a desk, and so much more. Oh, just because I want to point this out, for the first time in a very long time I'm actually sitting at a desk while on my computer! It's such a nice change! We've still got one bookshelf to move and our bed to place and make again, but for the most part, it's really come a long way. The place is starting to look more like a home than a random place where everyone stores all of their stuff.
The first focus we had when we moved in was to set up a room for the kids. We wanted them to have some feeling of normal life back again. I wanted them to feel like they were really home and settle in. Isn't that just how moms are? They put the needs of their kids first, sometimes to the point of forgetting their own needs all together. That's kind of where I was at. I didn't stop to think how insane I was going at the state of my own room until I started to move things and get them in order.
I'll admit full well that I have problems with stress and anxiety. It's all too easy to get overwhelmed. Who doesn't in these days when the economy is bad and it seems like everywhere you turn the news is no better? However, I've always been a firm believer in the idea of hearth and home. Home should be the sanctuary for a family. It should be that one place they return to and always feel like they are supported, strong, and at peace. I'm finally getting to the point where I can have that again. It certainly took me long enough!
This also makes my life easier in a number of ways. My life can largely be conducted upstairs now. I can sit in my room at my computer to work. I can be upstairs with the children, using the desk in their room for homeschool. I don't have to worry near so much about going up and down stairs all day, something that gives my knees hell every time I do. Instead, I can spend much of my time upstairs and only come down for meals and social time. It allows me a quiet place to work too. Best of all, we just need a baby gate for the top of the stairs and I won't even have to worry about which rooms in the house will be baby-friendly! I know the room mates will probably find me quite antisocial, but I'm a very private person and I think I'll prefer it that way. Besides, they have their anti-social moments too (who doesn't) so I can only imagine they'll understand.
I'm really looking forward to the positive changes that are going on here. For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling like I'm actually home. That's not to say I couldn't be home with my other room mates or past living situations, but I'm starting to settle into that feeling of sanctuary, of knowing my space is my space and truly enjoying it for what it is. I have an arrangement that mostly works for the kids, my partner, and I, and that's what truly matters.
I know when things change in life it's hard to actually see it for what it is. I've learned a lot from the situations I've been in. I've been reminded again to pick my battles, know when to speak and when it's not important enough. I've learned to take a good deal of venting both about situations that involved me and ones that haven't. What I've learned most of all is that no matter where I make my home, unless I actually make it a home for my family, it will never be more than a roof over our heads and someplace to keep us warm. It's been a very long time since I've actually made a decent home for my family. It's even harder when living with other people. I think it's about time we have one again.
So it may be slow going, but we're getting there. This place is finally turning into a space I want to call home, and I think it's about time. I need somewhere I can settle in for a while. I'm really looking forward to the rest of our stay here now.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Homeschooling Fail
I was supposed to start up with the homeschooling stuff today. I wanted to go back to forming that solid foundation work for my daughter so that she could move on to more her own level. I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to a more unschooling approach or if we're going to continue diving in with our make-it-up-as-you-go-along curriculum. I had planned to figure that out when we got there, but now I'm wondering if we're ever going to get there!
I'll be fair with myself. It's really not that bad. We took the week before we moved off of any school work because there were too many distractions. We took the week after off so we could settle in. Then, bright and early this morning, I was supposed to dive back in. We were going to finish the workbooks we had to focus on this week and then move on to more complex stuff. My daughter has been making so much more progress with this way of working that I'd thought about making it kind of our thing. Unfortunately, I'm at the point where I just want to scream because I've totally failed.
About 9am I dragged myself out of bed. The baby's got this stuffy nose problem, so he was up all night with bouts of screaming. I got very little sleep. I didn't mean to sleep in, but I woke up to two still sleeping children! I guess they needed their rest too! I didn't want to bother them, but they did drag themselves out of bed not long after. I had been trying to set myself in the mindset to dig out the books and get cracking, but I took one look at the kitchen table and wanted to cry. There's no way I can start doing school work with the kids if we don't have a surface to work on! I can't even pull out some crayons and paper to let them draw! There's barely even enough room for them to have their meals, and we certainly can't sit down at the table as a family. I just gave up then because I was too tired and cranky to really deal with it. That was my first fail of the day. Since then, let me tell you, inspired has not been my name.
Now, on the table, I'm not entirely to blame. Actually, very little of what's on the table belongs to me. For that matter, you can blame my room mates, but it's not really their fault either. Well, I suppose in a way it is. They've had plenty of opportunity to pack it all up and put it away or get rid of it. However, they didn't. More importantly, the people who left it all here abandoned it months ago. Yes, a part of me does still twitch that the house isn't baby-friendly yet and that there's still stuff that needs to be cleaned up from the house mates before us, but I can deal with that.
However, the real fail is that I said I was going to do these things and I still haven't done it. Yes, this was supposed to be our first day back into the swing of things, and I need to be forgiving. We did just move yet again, but I need to get motivated. I'd been so incredibly focused on getting things done and making progress around the house two homes ago, but now I've kind of dropped the ball. I need to get back on it again. I need to keep a focus on getting the house in order because a clean home really is a happy home.
What's most shocking about this (though I suppose it shouldn't be) is how incredibly connected everything is. I can't homeschool properly because I don't have a clean house. I had made that connection, but not like this before. I'd made the connection when I was the slob and the slacker. Now that it's not my stuff, it kind of gets my hackles up even more. Someone else is preventing me from raising and educating my children! More importantly, I'm just sitting here and letting it happen!
Here I was hoping to have a nice, kind of lazy day where I could do some knitting for warm stuff for the oncoming winter. I'd planned to do some work with the kids, but when exhaustion got in the way, I could accept not doing that. It just seemed like one excuse after another. I really just need to get on it.
So now, in order to start off a fresh start at homeschooling in the morning, I've got to assign myself a few tasks. I'm going back to the clean sink. I'm going to throw in a load of laundry. Then I'm going to spend a few minutes attempting to tackle the kitchen table. Hopefully some progress will be made and tomorrow won't be quite so much of a homeschooling fail day...
I'll be fair with myself. It's really not that bad. We took the week before we moved off of any school work because there were too many distractions. We took the week after off so we could settle in. Then, bright and early this morning, I was supposed to dive back in. We were going to finish the workbooks we had to focus on this week and then move on to more complex stuff. My daughter has been making so much more progress with this way of working that I'd thought about making it kind of our thing. Unfortunately, I'm at the point where I just want to scream because I've totally failed.
About 9am I dragged myself out of bed. The baby's got this stuffy nose problem, so he was up all night with bouts of screaming. I got very little sleep. I didn't mean to sleep in, but I woke up to two still sleeping children! I guess they needed their rest too! I didn't want to bother them, but they did drag themselves out of bed not long after. I had been trying to set myself in the mindset to dig out the books and get cracking, but I took one look at the kitchen table and wanted to cry. There's no way I can start doing school work with the kids if we don't have a surface to work on! I can't even pull out some crayons and paper to let them draw! There's barely even enough room for them to have their meals, and we certainly can't sit down at the table as a family. I just gave up then because I was too tired and cranky to really deal with it. That was my first fail of the day. Since then, let me tell you, inspired has not been my name.
Now, on the table, I'm not entirely to blame. Actually, very little of what's on the table belongs to me. For that matter, you can blame my room mates, but it's not really their fault either. Well, I suppose in a way it is. They've had plenty of opportunity to pack it all up and put it away or get rid of it. However, they didn't. More importantly, the people who left it all here abandoned it months ago. Yes, a part of me does still twitch that the house isn't baby-friendly yet and that there's still stuff that needs to be cleaned up from the house mates before us, but I can deal with that.
However, the real fail is that I said I was going to do these things and I still haven't done it. Yes, this was supposed to be our first day back into the swing of things, and I need to be forgiving. We did just move yet again, but I need to get motivated. I'd been so incredibly focused on getting things done and making progress around the house two homes ago, but now I've kind of dropped the ball. I need to get back on it again. I need to keep a focus on getting the house in order because a clean home really is a happy home.
What's most shocking about this (though I suppose it shouldn't be) is how incredibly connected everything is. I can't homeschool properly because I don't have a clean house. I had made that connection, but not like this before. I'd made the connection when I was the slob and the slacker. Now that it's not my stuff, it kind of gets my hackles up even more. Someone else is preventing me from raising and educating my children! More importantly, I'm just sitting here and letting it happen!
Here I was hoping to have a nice, kind of lazy day where I could do some knitting for warm stuff for the oncoming winter. I'd planned to do some work with the kids, but when exhaustion got in the way, I could accept not doing that. It just seemed like one excuse after another. I really just need to get on it.
So now, in order to start off a fresh start at homeschooling in the morning, I've got to assign myself a few tasks. I'm going back to the clean sink. I'm going to throw in a load of laundry. Then I'm going to spend a few minutes attempting to tackle the kitchen table. Hopefully some progress will be made and tomorrow won't be quite so much of a homeschooling fail day...
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Downsizing Again...
I feel like a company that's going under. It seems like every day I'm downsizing. In part it's because I keep moving into smaller and smaller places with less and less space for all our stuff. It seems like there's just no way I'm ever going to be a material person again. I suppose that's a good thing, in a way. Who needs all of this stuff anyway? It's just taking up space, space that we don't have right now. In some cases, I can make a few bucks off of it. In some cases I'm just tossing it at GoodWill where they can make the best out of it. It doesn't really matter (though the money would always be nice) because I'm lightening my own personal burden.
Today I've started the process of going through the house to get rid of clothes we don't need again. A huge bag full of socks just got tossed. They're socks no one can wear anymore, or those that have been worn to the point of developing their own sentience. In some cases, their mate disappeared several moves ago. I had hoped this would happen as I started making socks to replace the store bought ones, but we're not going to be so lucky. It's time they go. We'll keep enough around to keep our feet happy, but most of the rest of them need to go on their way.
I'm also going through my dance costumes and accessories. I've come to realize there are just some I never wear anymore. In some cases, I never really wore them in the first place. It's time for them to find dancers that will love them as much as I thought I would. Clearly, I've developed a much more particular sense of style, and the pieces I once thought suited me so well really don't anymore. I hope I can make a few bucks off of them, after all, they were all very expensive. In some cases, they're things I've made for myself and just need to get rid of. I'd love to keep them, but you do what you must when times are tight, and I can always make more. I wanted to make a business out of making and selling them anyway!
Finally, I've been sorting through all our other stuff again. It's time to start wrangling up toys that don't get played with again, though this time it seems like there aren't many to sort out. Most of the toys are well used and loved. It's also a good excuse to organize and putt all the like with like again. That probably won't happen until we finally move, since there's no place for the toys here, and we won't be staying long enough for it to make a difference.
Then there's the clothes. My oldest daughter is my only daughter. At this point, I've decided not to hang on to any of her clothes. If I had a baby girl tomorrow, it would still mean holding on to them all for seven years or more, waiting for her to get big enough to wear them! That's going to take up a lot of space. It's not even going to be a short while, as I'm not planning on any more children yet, and if I decide to have one, I can't be sure it will be a girl. That seems an awful big chance to save on. Of the baby clothes, I'm keeping very limited stuff. Anything I don't absolutely adore is going away. I'm keeping all the little shirts, since it's hard to find shirts and not bodysuits for babies. With the use of longies and shorties, shirts are far more practical. I'm going to keep all of the hand knit stuff, since I adore it. However, a lot of it really does need to go. I'm not planning on another baby any time soon. By then we should be in a better financial situation to buy new stuff, even if it means buying it second hand. I'm keeping all of my older son's clothes, as that only makes sense. In two or three years the littlest one will be growing into them, so it's not like I'll be holding them forever, and I know for certain there's another little boy to grow into them.
I'm even starting to go through all the old things I've been hanging on to for so long, like all of my old notebooks and journals. I'm starting to sort through the projects I started and never finished. I'm even looking to destash some of my yarn and fabric! I know that's a shocking concept, and I may just have to destash by using it on things I can sell or use myself, but it's time I stopped holding on to things. I can only drag it around with me for so much longer and it's starting to hold me back. In the end, you can't take it with you, so what would be the point of holding on to it my whole life when someone else could actually use it to make something they love?
It feels good to downsize again, in a way, but at the same time, it's difficult. It's hard to let go of things you've carried around for years. It's hard to simply drop everything and move on. It's also hard because it has that foreboding sense of moving again. I can't entirely complain. The situation we're moving into will be great to us. We'll actually be paying rent and bills, so we're earning a good tenant history. The place is inexpensive, so we're not paying as much as we could have to. Our soon-to-be room mate is a wonderful person. Finally, it will be closer to where I teach. My partner is also winning out as he's being transferred at work to a place that will allow for more hours and a schedule he wants. This is a wonderful, positive change for us. It's also added incentive to get rid of all the extra baggage we've been carrying around.
As for the news on moving (if you didn't already know), it's just a stroke of bad news for the friends we're living with. This is what happens when the economy takes a turn for the worse. They're suffering through their own hard times. We're parting in peace, and I really do hope they land on their feet. I wish much the same for my own family.
For now, it's back to downsizing. It's back to releasing the things that are holding me back. It's time to start accepting that sometimes stuff is just stuff and all it does is get in the way. By the time I'm done, it may feel sparse, like we have nothing, but at least we'll know the only stuff remaining is that which we'll truly enjoy.
Today I've started the process of going through the house to get rid of clothes we don't need again. A huge bag full of socks just got tossed. They're socks no one can wear anymore, or those that have been worn to the point of developing their own sentience. In some cases, their mate disappeared several moves ago. I had hoped this would happen as I started making socks to replace the store bought ones, but we're not going to be so lucky. It's time they go. We'll keep enough around to keep our feet happy, but most of the rest of them need to go on their way.
I'm also going through my dance costumes and accessories. I've come to realize there are just some I never wear anymore. In some cases, I never really wore them in the first place. It's time for them to find dancers that will love them as much as I thought I would. Clearly, I've developed a much more particular sense of style, and the pieces I once thought suited me so well really don't anymore. I hope I can make a few bucks off of them, after all, they were all very expensive. In some cases, they're things I've made for myself and just need to get rid of. I'd love to keep them, but you do what you must when times are tight, and I can always make more. I wanted to make a business out of making and selling them anyway!
Finally, I've been sorting through all our other stuff again. It's time to start wrangling up toys that don't get played with again, though this time it seems like there aren't many to sort out. Most of the toys are well used and loved. It's also a good excuse to organize and putt all the like with like again. That probably won't happen until we finally move, since there's no place for the toys here, and we won't be staying long enough for it to make a difference.
Then there's the clothes. My oldest daughter is my only daughter. At this point, I've decided not to hang on to any of her clothes. If I had a baby girl tomorrow, it would still mean holding on to them all for seven years or more, waiting for her to get big enough to wear them! That's going to take up a lot of space. It's not even going to be a short while, as I'm not planning on any more children yet, and if I decide to have one, I can't be sure it will be a girl. That seems an awful big chance to save on. Of the baby clothes, I'm keeping very limited stuff. Anything I don't absolutely adore is going away. I'm keeping all the little shirts, since it's hard to find shirts and not bodysuits for babies. With the use of longies and shorties, shirts are far more practical. I'm going to keep all of the hand knit stuff, since I adore it. However, a lot of it really does need to go. I'm not planning on another baby any time soon. By then we should be in a better financial situation to buy new stuff, even if it means buying it second hand. I'm keeping all of my older son's clothes, as that only makes sense. In two or three years the littlest one will be growing into them, so it's not like I'll be holding them forever, and I know for certain there's another little boy to grow into them.
I'm even starting to go through all the old things I've been hanging on to for so long, like all of my old notebooks and journals. I'm starting to sort through the projects I started and never finished. I'm even looking to destash some of my yarn and fabric! I know that's a shocking concept, and I may just have to destash by using it on things I can sell or use myself, but it's time I stopped holding on to things. I can only drag it around with me for so much longer and it's starting to hold me back. In the end, you can't take it with you, so what would be the point of holding on to it my whole life when someone else could actually use it to make something they love?
It feels good to downsize again, in a way, but at the same time, it's difficult. It's hard to let go of things you've carried around for years. It's hard to simply drop everything and move on. It's also hard because it has that foreboding sense of moving again. I can't entirely complain. The situation we're moving into will be great to us. We'll actually be paying rent and bills, so we're earning a good tenant history. The place is inexpensive, so we're not paying as much as we could have to. Our soon-to-be room mate is a wonderful person. Finally, it will be closer to where I teach. My partner is also winning out as he's being transferred at work to a place that will allow for more hours and a schedule he wants. This is a wonderful, positive change for us. It's also added incentive to get rid of all the extra baggage we've been carrying around.
As for the news on moving (if you didn't already know), it's just a stroke of bad news for the friends we're living with. This is what happens when the economy takes a turn for the worse. They're suffering through their own hard times. We're parting in peace, and I really do hope they land on their feet. I wish much the same for my own family.
For now, it's back to downsizing. It's back to releasing the things that are holding me back. It's time to start accepting that sometimes stuff is just stuff and all it does is get in the way. By the time I'm done, it may feel sparse, like we have nothing, but at least we'll know the only stuff remaining is that which we'll truly enjoy.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
What I Learned from Laundry and our Wardrobes
The past few days have been filled with a lot of laundry. Since moving to our new home in the country, we've been sorting our belongings, unpacking, putting away, and washing just about everything we have. As a result, I've been given a pretty good appreciation to exactly how much stuff we really have.
Before we moved here, we didn't have our own washer and dryer. Laundry was done in big batches when we could haul it off to the laundromat. Often times we only pulled together the things we thought we needed. Most times it ended up a random assortment of children's clothes, half of which didn't even suit the season or wasn't even the right size, and a collection of the most needed adult cloths. Our laundry took over the house. There were dirty clothes cast off just about everywhere. The floor in my room was piled with clothes that never got put away and cloths that desperately needed to be washed, but we could never afford to run through it, load after load, time after time. We just got behind, and because we only did laundry when we needed it most, behind is where we stayed.
Now that we have our own laundry facilities, I've been spending more time than I care to think about washing clothing, folding, putting away, and organizing. I didn't really know just how much we had until I looked at the growing pile in the hall as I tossed it all out of the room. There is still laundry on my floor and a waist high pile of baskets and bins in the hall of stuff that needs to be cleaned. I've been trying to find homes for it all, but I'm starting to realize just where our biggest problems lie. All of our wardrobes need a serious overhaul. Thankfully, this mass laundering has been inspiration to start.
Starting with the littlest one in the house, I shouldn't have been surprised by the mass amount of clothing we've piled up. Babies generally have a lot of clothes. Not only do they go through it like crazy because of spit up, drool, and everything else, but they need a wide variety of sizes on hand, just in case. Until a child is about two-years-old, they go through multiple size changes in a year. As a result, it never hurts to have the next size or two up on hand because it will seem like one day everything will fit fine, and then with no warning, nothing will fit at all. I've got such a variety of clothing for my littlest that I could probably outfit him for the first year with no question, and I have some garments that should fit until he's two. Thankfully, as he gets older, that giant stack of baby clothes will thin out and I'll be left with only needing to plan ahead a season or a year at most. I can get behind hanging on to what he can grow into, especially since I know we'll be moving into yearly size changes before I know it.
Unfortunately, the little guy still needs a wardrobe overhaul. I knew I had a bunch of clothing that simply wasn't going to fit my little man. He'd outgrown all of his newborn clothes and the next size up was starting to get small on him. Since we're choosing to go with cloth diapers, most of the "6-9 months" clothing isn't going to fit over his bottom, nor will many of the pajamas and rompers. Most clothing isn't meant to be worn with big, bulky bottoms. Thankfully, I intend on making plenty of longies and shorties, so my little guy will have plenty of bottoms to wear and I won't have to worry about it. This means his wardrobe has a lot of weeding out to do. There are a few select garments that I've decided to keep for the far-off day I decide to have another child, but there's a growing pile marked for "donations" to go to GoodWill or Salvation Army. If I can't use them, someone else might as well have them. Little body suits aren't as ideal as they used to be. Pajamas, rompers, and pants are being tossed because we don't use them, though we've kept a couple that will still work well enough. Unfortunately, finding normal shirts for babies this age is quite the challenge, as I'm finding out, so his wardrobe is going to be slightly lacking for the first year. Even so, we're finding that we can make things work, even if we leave bodysuits unbuttoned. Thankfully, all the outgrown and impractical clothing we have packed away can now find a home with another family, reducing the burden of storage and clutter of things we don't need.
My older son had the exact opposite wardrobe problem. We found ourselves washing his clothing all the time, yet he never had enough to last. With his preferences of wearing shirts for days at a time, he didn't have a problem with this, but come laundry day I was always frustrated to only find two or three shirts and one pair of pants or shorts. I knew we had bought him more than that, but it seemed they somehow all disappeared. With sorting through all the laundry in the house, I'm finally starting to find it all and fit it all into his dresser. Since his clothing was so greatly outnumbered by all the other clothes in the house, it was kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. Much of it was also packed away in random boxes, places I never would have found it otherwise. If it wasn't for the efforts to pull everything out to pack away and store in a logical manner, I probably never would have found it all, and I'm sure when I got through the few remaining boxes, I'll find even more of his clothing. Much of what we've got for him is too small and needs to be put away until the littlest one grows into it, but there's plenty that he can get through a week without doing laundry. He's got the least clothing in the house, but he's got enough to get by.
My daughter, on the other hand, has a wide variety of sizes as well. She's gotten a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and neighbors. A good deal of it just needs to be put away for later, but she's also got clothes she's long since outgrown that somehow keep making it back into her drawers. She loves those garments, but she just can't fit them anymore. That doesn't stop her from wearing them. She really just needs a complete wardrobe overhaul. I need to make sure everything she still has fits her, and whatever doesn't is either put away until she grows into it, or is given away so she can stop trying to fit into things that are much too small. She also has a horrible habit of wanting to wear the same outfit for days on end, but I think that will be easier to manage once all her clothes are in her dresser and can no longer use the excuse that she can't find any clean clothing. Of course, that won't stop her from trying, but at least I'll know better.
Sorting through my clothes has left me with mixed feelings. I've started to notice that I don't have just one style, but I'm finding I've got much more defined preferences than I once had. Over the past few years I've downsized quite a bit. I had tons of clothing given to me over the years by friends and family or when I was living in the shelter. Some of it was clothing I've held on to from high school. Most of it didn't suit me anymore. For one reason or another, I just never wore it, so it was time to pass it on to someone who would wear it. Now I'm realizing that I've still got way too much. I have black jeans from working at LensCrafters as an optometric technician. I've got khaki colored pants from when I was in the lab. I've got all sorts of shirts that just don't fit me right, or I don't wear because I don't like the cut or the fit. Most of it I held on to on the off chance that I would need them again, or because it meant I could wait longer between laundry days. Now that I can do my laundry at the house, I no longer need most of it. When I look into work again, I'm going to be looking for more of the business casual or business professional look, so much of what I've held on to simply won't be appropriate anymore. It's time to let much of that go and only hang on to the stuff I'll really wear, the stuff I need. I will admit, letting it all go isn't going to be easy, but it's high time I did. It will feel so much better to see all my clothing fit neatly in my closet and dresser, and it will be incentive to do laundry more often, instead of waiting for the mountain to get so high it will take days to clean and put away.
Then there's my boyfriend, who really is the woman of the family. He has more clothing than perhaps the rest of the family combined. He's got cloths for every occasion, though most of them he hardly ever wears. He's got a good selection of professional-looking clothing, which I can get behind. He wears them for interviews and hopes to some day get a good job where he may just need that kind of clothing. He's got a drawer full of nothing but industrial-style club pants, which he wears all the time. He's got a collection of band shirts and other t-shirts. He has jeans and button-down shirts for that more preppy look. Some of it he wears all the time, and I completely understand wanting a variety of clothing to dress to suit the mood, but he's got clothing that he only wears when there's nothing else. I really wish he'd cut back, but he keeps telling me he needs more clothing because he doesn't have enough! I love him dearly, but he takes up more of the dresser and closet than I do!
In reality, looking at the way my family is dressed has taught me some valuable lessons. The most important lesson to know when it's time to let something go, no matter how practical it is. I'll have plenty of opportunities to buy more clothes as time goes on, things that more suit my current styles, tastes, and needs at the time. I'll be making room for more pretty hand-knits and other things that I would truly love to have, but would get lost in my endless collection of clothes I never wear. It's better to have fewer things that I adore and wear all the time than to clutter my home with "once in a while" selections that distract me from the things I really love.
So here I am, trying to cut away all the dead weight in my wardrobe, and you know what? It's freeing! I'm breaking away from the modern ideal of materialism. The more you have the happier you'll be doesn't truly apply to my life anymore, at least, not in a physical sense. In many ways, the less you have, the more you'll appreciate and be happier with what you do keep. I wonder if whoever first said "less is more" had any idea how true that statement really is.
Before we moved here, we didn't have our own washer and dryer. Laundry was done in big batches when we could haul it off to the laundromat. Often times we only pulled together the things we thought we needed. Most times it ended up a random assortment of children's clothes, half of which didn't even suit the season or wasn't even the right size, and a collection of the most needed adult cloths. Our laundry took over the house. There were dirty clothes cast off just about everywhere. The floor in my room was piled with clothes that never got put away and cloths that desperately needed to be washed, but we could never afford to run through it, load after load, time after time. We just got behind, and because we only did laundry when we needed it most, behind is where we stayed.
Now that we have our own laundry facilities, I've been spending more time than I care to think about washing clothing, folding, putting away, and organizing. I didn't really know just how much we had until I looked at the growing pile in the hall as I tossed it all out of the room. There is still laundry on my floor and a waist high pile of baskets and bins in the hall of stuff that needs to be cleaned. I've been trying to find homes for it all, but I'm starting to realize just where our biggest problems lie. All of our wardrobes need a serious overhaul. Thankfully, this mass laundering has been inspiration to start.
Starting with the littlest one in the house, I shouldn't have been surprised by the mass amount of clothing we've piled up. Babies generally have a lot of clothes. Not only do they go through it like crazy because of spit up, drool, and everything else, but they need a wide variety of sizes on hand, just in case. Until a child is about two-years-old, they go through multiple size changes in a year. As a result, it never hurts to have the next size or two up on hand because it will seem like one day everything will fit fine, and then with no warning, nothing will fit at all. I've got such a variety of clothing for my littlest that I could probably outfit him for the first year with no question, and I have some garments that should fit until he's two. Thankfully, as he gets older, that giant stack of baby clothes will thin out and I'll be left with only needing to plan ahead a season or a year at most. I can get behind hanging on to what he can grow into, especially since I know we'll be moving into yearly size changes before I know it.
Unfortunately, the little guy still needs a wardrobe overhaul. I knew I had a bunch of clothing that simply wasn't going to fit my little man. He'd outgrown all of his newborn clothes and the next size up was starting to get small on him. Since we're choosing to go with cloth diapers, most of the "6-9 months" clothing isn't going to fit over his bottom, nor will many of the pajamas and rompers. Most clothing isn't meant to be worn with big, bulky bottoms. Thankfully, I intend on making plenty of longies and shorties, so my little guy will have plenty of bottoms to wear and I won't have to worry about it. This means his wardrobe has a lot of weeding out to do. There are a few select garments that I've decided to keep for the far-off day I decide to have another child, but there's a growing pile marked for "donations" to go to GoodWill or Salvation Army. If I can't use them, someone else might as well have them. Little body suits aren't as ideal as they used to be. Pajamas, rompers, and pants are being tossed because we don't use them, though we've kept a couple that will still work well enough. Unfortunately, finding normal shirts for babies this age is quite the challenge, as I'm finding out, so his wardrobe is going to be slightly lacking for the first year. Even so, we're finding that we can make things work, even if we leave bodysuits unbuttoned. Thankfully, all the outgrown and impractical clothing we have packed away can now find a home with another family, reducing the burden of storage and clutter of things we don't need.
My older son had the exact opposite wardrobe problem. We found ourselves washing his clothing all the time, yet he never had enough to last. With his preferences of wearing shirts for days at a time, he didn't have a problem with this, but come laundry day I was always frustrated to only find two or three shirts and one pair of pants or shorts. I knew we had bought him more than that, but it seemed they somehow all disappeared. With sorting through all the laundry in the house, I'm finally starting to find it all and fit it all into his dresser. Since his clothing was so greatly outnumbered by all the other clothes in the house, it was kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. Much of it was also packed away in random boxes, places I never would have found it otherwise. If it wasn't for the efforts to pull everything out to pack away and store in a logical manner, I probably never would have found it all, and I'm sure when I got through the few remaining boxes, I'll find even more of his clothing. Much of what we've got for him is too small and needs to be put away until the littlest one grows into it, but there's plenty that he can get through a week without doing laundry. He's got the least clothing in the house, but he's got enough to get by.
My daughter, on the other hand, has a wide variety of sizes as well. She's gotten a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and neighbors. A good deal of it just needs to be put away for later, but she's also got clothes she's long since outgrown that somehow keep making it back into her drawers. She loves those garments, but she just can't fit them anymore. That doesn't stop her from wearing them. She really just needs a complete wardrobe overhaul. I need to make sure everything she still has fits her, and whatever doesn't is either put away until she grows into it, or is given away so she can stop trying to fit into things that are much too small. She also has a horrible habit of wanting to wear the same outfit for days on end, but I think that will be easier to manage once all her clothes are in her dresser and can no longer use the excuse that she can't find any clean clothing. Of course, that won't stop her from trying, but at least I'll know better.
Sorting through my clothes has left me with mixed feelings. I've started to notice that I don't have just one style, but I'm finding I've got much more defined preferences than I once had. Over the past few years I've downsized quite a bit. I had tons of clothing given to me over the years by friends and family or when I was living in the shelter. Some of it was clothing I've held on to from high school. Most of it didn't suit me anymore. For one reason or another, I just never wore it, so it was time to pass it on to someone who would wear it. Now I'm realizing that I've still got way too much. I have black jeans from working at LensCrafters as an optometric technician. I've got khaki colored pants from when I was in the lab. I've got all sorts of shirts that just don't fit me right, or I don't wear because I don't like the cut or the fit. Most of it I held on to on the off chance that I would need them again, or because it meant I could wait longer between laundry days. Now that I can do my laundry at the house, I no longer need most of it. When I look into work again, I'm going to be looking for more of the business casual or business professional look, so much of what I've held on to simply won't be appropriate anymore. It's time to let much of that go and only hang on to the stuff I'll really wear, the stuff I need. I will admit, letting it all go isn't going to be easy, but it's high time I did. It will feel so much better to see all my clothing fit neatly in my closet and dresser, and it will be incentive to do laundry more often, instead of waiting for the mountain to get so high it will take days to clean and put away.
Then there's my boyfriend, who really is the woman of the family. He has more clothing than perhaps the rest of the family combined. He's got cloths for every occasion, though most of them he hardly ever wears. He's got a good selection of professional-looking clothing, which I can get behind. He wears them for interviews and hopes to some day get a good job where he may just need that kind of clothing. He's got a drawer full of nothing but industrial-style club pants, which he wears all the time. He's got a collection of band shirts and other t-shirts. He has jeans and button-down shirts for that more preppy look. Some of it he wears all the time, and I completely understand wanting a variety of clothing to dress to suit the mood, but he's got clothing that he only wears when there's nothing else. I really wish he'd cut back, but he keeps telling me he needs more clothing because he doesn't have enough! I love him dearly, but he takes up more of the dresser and closet than I do!
In reality, looking at the way my family is dressed has taught me some valuable lessons. The most important lesson to know when it's time to let something go, no matter how practical it is. I'll have plenty of opportunities to buy more clothes as time goes on, things that more suit my current styles, tastes, and needs at the time. I'll be making room for more pretty hand-knits and other things that I would truly love to have, but would get lost in my endless collection of clothes I never wear. It's better to have fewer things that I adore and wear all the time than to clutter my home with "once in a while" selections that distract me from the things I really love.
So here I am, trying to cut away all the dead weight in my wardrobe, and you know what? It's freeing! I'm breaking away from the modern ideal of materialism. The more you have the happier you'll be doesn't truly apply to my life anymore, at least, not in a physical sense. In many ways, the less you have, the more you'll appreciate and be happier with what you do keep. I wonder if whoever first said "less is more" had any idea how true that statement really is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)