THE 2011 Decluttering Challenge!!

Hello. My name is Mary and I am a piler. Here is how I got started on decluttering!

I am a huge Mothering.com forum fan. I've been posting there for several years and always checked out the birth & pregnancy stuff. With Brian's pregnancy I noticed they had decluttering & simplifying your life forum. I checked in with that a time or two & didn't think much of it. We collected more stuff for baby and for the house.

Then I got pregnant with Liam. I had HUGE nesting issues with this pregnancy and just had to get stuff out of my house. I felt closed in and smothered. I remembered seeing that forum and immediately signed up for the 2010 things out of your house in 2010 challenge.

Realistically, that is a mere 5.5 things to purge on a daily basis. Well, you know that life happens and along with that comes stuff to deal with. Some days I purged like crazy and other days it just plain didn't happen.
As I got bigger, my list got longer and longer. The items got harder to find and to let go of.

I purged my house of 2013 items in 2010. I purged around 1,000 items of clothing between all 5 of us. Nothing was sacred...not even pictures and I realized that I still had MORE that needed to leave my house. This year, the bar is raised to 2011 items to be sold, trashed, donated, gifted or recycled.

I want a functioning, easy-to-clean house. One that where everything has a place and EVERYONE knows where to find it. I want that comfortable, beautiful, decluttered and CLEAN house that magazines showcase. Okay, that is a little too perfect, but it is a lofty ideal to shoot for. I don't want to have a 2012 aspiration for decluttering.

January is half over and I have purged approximately 440 things out of my home. Not bad for just 20 days in. I started a Facebook group and it has close to 40 women sharing the same goal. My piling habit ends. I am working with small area at a time and coming back to each area to double check.

 I am teaching my family to respect the things we have, make them last and to be resourceful and creative with the stuff we already have.