Cindy Bogard’s Weekly Post

I’m half-way through my decluttering journey. At the end of May, my friend Janet sent me a link to Unclutterer.com, and from there I found Colleen’s blog. I decided, “That’s a challenge I can take on,” and I started decluttering June 1. Every day, I post what I have decluttered on Facebook.

In the 182 days since, I have purged 1225 items, and made $1034.54 selling on Craigslist, Ebay, and Amazon.

How has this journey changed me? My family? What lessons have we learned?

Here’s the biggest one for me: Decluttering leaves money in your pocket. We are savers and have a fairly complex system of accounting that allows us to save for all sorts of eventual needs and wants: large home improvements, a new car, annual property tax on our house, etc. Each time my husband gets paid, a significant amount of money is siphoned off to savings, leaving a relatively small amount for groceries, monthly bills and gasoline. Prior to decluttering, this account was often close to (or at) zero when the next paycheck arrived. But in the past few months, I’ve had several hundred dollars still available when the next check came. That’s powerful motivation!

In addition to just staying out of the stores, with every purchase I ask myself “Do I need it? Do I want it? Will it fit? Do I have something that I could use instead? Can I borrow this?” Sometimes it slows my shopping down (sometimes ridiculously so), but it keeps money in my wallet. I’ve just gotten rid of too many things to bring more stuff in willy-nilly. I look at everything with a critical eye and think, “How long until you’re decluttered?”

My husband says that the thing he has learned is that storing things for years because “I might need it someday,” is a poor trade-off between space and money. He realizes now that he would rather move things along and have more space, particularly in the garage and office.

My ten year old says that she’s realized how much she enjoys having a cleaner room, and she’s also thought a lot about gifts.  She’s concluded that while gifts are exciting to get, they often don’t get used and end up cluttering your space.

My eight year old says she’s learned, “Don’t clutter,” and what I’ve learned about her that while she loves to gather, hoard and collect, she is a ruthless declutterer too. Truly, she is “easy come, easy go.”

Besides the savings, other lessons I have learned are:

1. It’s lovely to have an easier-to-clean house.
2. Everyone appreciate the cleanliness and space.
3. Everyone’s “want its” are diminished because a “want it” today is a “don’t want it” tomorrow.
4. The less you have, the easier it is to use and appreciate what you do have.
5. Purchases are sweeter knowing how it was hard for them to get into the house.
6. The more you let go, the easier it is to let more go.
7. This journey will go past 365 days. The list of places I have yet to investigate ranges from my jewelry drawer (probably a 10 minute job) to the garage (possibly 365 days by itself).

Congratulations to me and to you, too, wherever you are in your decluttering journey.

Item 335 of 365 less things

We have learned how to reduce paperwork over the last twelve months so we no longer need this hanging file box.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. That my mother-in-law and I get along – Especially since she is visiting for a week.
2. Rolling over and going back to sleep – after my husband got up at 6am to go to work.
   
3. Cheap Tuesday pizza night – It is OK to have a night off cooking occasionally.
4. Happily watching the world go by– Sometimes I like to be kept waiting because it forces me to stop and simply observe for a while.
   

5. The facial doctors gave Liam the all clear to chew again. Yay!!!!