Welcome to My Little Corner of Life…Decluttered

Hello my friend! I am so glad you are here! And while that may sound a bit cliche, please know that I truly mean it. Truly.

You see, I understand that there’s an excellent chance that you’re here reading this today because you are exactly where I once was. Yep, you’re a reflection of me many moons ago. It wasn’t all *that* long ago in the grand scheme of things, at least not so long that I can’t still remember it vividly, but frankly I try not to. For the purpose of introductions though, I’ll risk a little vulnerability and share a bit of my story with you.

Just over a decade ago, we were living in a house about half the size of what we currently live in and while I generally kept the main living areas relatively tidy (gotta be ready for unexpected guests!) every other area of our home was a struggle. It wasn’t that we wanted things to be cluttered or liked things to be cluttered or even that we tolerated things being cluttered, I just figured our house was too small for all our stuff & there wasn’t much to be done about that. So when we started talking about adding a second child to our family, we decided to move, because the thought of an additional living being and all of the stuff that comes with that event seemed completely unfathomable in that space.

Fast forward to our new, larger home and even with twice the space, our stuff seemed to be multiplying. Cabinet space was at a premium. Closets were stuffed full. The basement storage area…yeah let’s not even go there. (No really, I hated going in there. Ha!) And if I bought one more cube storage unit…well let’s just say my house was starting to look like an Ikea showroom. Something had to change, and after a while I finally came to the realization that it wasn’t the square footage of our house that needed an upgrade nor did I need to add anymore shelving units or cubby bins.

It was my way of thinking!

Having the amount of clutter that we had in our home was alarmingly overwhelming, to the point that it was affecting my ability to be the mom and wife I wanted to be for my family. I was wildly stressed out by all the stuff I had to attempt to manage in my house. And I say “attempt to manage” because I certainly couldn’t seem to keep up with it all.

So instead of racking my brain on how to contain it all in a more manageable way, I started getting rid of stuff. Little by little I made progress around our house. And as the tide of stuff continued to go out, I felt like I could breathe more easily. With each trip to the donation center, each drop off at the recycling center, and even each garbage bag taken out to the trash can, I could feel my load getting lighter…both physically and mentally. I went from a mom who yelled at her kids multiple times a day (not my proudest mom moments) to a mom who pretty much only raises her voice when her teenage son can’t seem to hear her calling him for dinner over his gaming antics. (Can you relate? Smh.) Who knew that letting go of all the things we really didn’t need would bring me more peace and joy than having all that crap?

Want a peek into what kind of clutter I was dealing with? How about a look into that basement storage room that I told you I couldn’t even stand to walk into. But before I show you, let’s all agree that this is a judgement free zone, eh? With clutter can come a lot of embarrassment, and even shame. Now I’ve done a lot of work in getting past that for myself and now I prefer to be transparent and vulnerable with you so you know that I get it, and you can do the same with me. No judgement. Pinky promise? Ok.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the former state of my basement storage room. *Gulp*

Here it is in all its glory. Yes, I will claim this hot mess dumpster fire. I still shudder a little bit when I look at this image. And really, you’re only seeing one half of the room. Trust me that the other half wasn’t any better. I don’t even know what all was in here. It’s very possible that the MIB came and flashed that light thing in front of my face after my brave hubby joined me in the quest to reclaim this space because I honestly feel like this could not possibly have all been our stuff…but it was. And this was just one space in our home that had become infested with clutter.

So we called in the “exterminator” (spoiler alert…it was me…and the aforementioned valiant knight of a husband who spent his winter break that year trapped in this dungeon with his damsel in distress freeing them both from the snares of evil clutter!) Ok I’m getting off track with the visuals so let’s bring it back to something a little more tangible, shall we?

I remember trying to keep a tally of the car loads of donations, but I lost track. It was at least 5. I do remember 2 trips to the recycling center to get rid of all the cardboard we broke down…anybody else like to save the boxes for everything? And of course we did this around the Christmas holiday which always seems to create extra trash anyway (iykyk) so I think it took us 4 weeks worth of trash pick ups to get everything that wasn’t donatable or recyclable out of the house. But it was so so worth it. Take a look at our basement storage after we finished.

Did you just get chills? Cause I sure did. Feel free to scroll back and forth between those two pics for a hot minute. I’ll wait.

Y’all! Do you see that floor?? Do you see how much floor actually exists in this room? Bring on the basement dance party! No more pushing piles of things aside with my foot as I venture my way through the chaos to attempt to find something.

And yes, we did create enough space through decluttering to set up an exercise area back here! Say whaaaat?! (Just don’t ask how often it gets used…that’s an entirely different issue.) I distinctly remember joking that I would come “hide out” in here when I needed a minute to myself because once we got this space decluttered it was such a peaceful place for me to be. The best part…it has stayed like this ever since. Why? Because when we got rid of all the stuff that wasn’t useful to us or that we really loved and cherished, it was infinitely easier to designate a home for everything we chose to keep.

Outside of the triumph of reclaiming our basement storage, I’ve had quite the journey of my own in the organizing world over the years. From organizing classrooms and decluttering school storage areas in my years as a teacher, to helping friends and family tackle cluttered spaces in their homes, to finally admitting to myself that I actually have a passion for helping others declutter their lives and so finding a job with a local small business that provides home organizing services, and even earning the designation of Certified Home Organizer^TM from the ASPO. Through it all, I’ve learned a ton about what it takes to help you get organized. So if you’ve made the choice to ditch the clutter in your life, you’re in the right place.

There it is right there, my friend. The secret to a simpler life and I gave it away in my very first blog post. You have a choice. You always have a choice, even when you feel like you don’t. You have a choice, and dare I say a responsibility, to decide whether or not you want to live in a state of clutter. In a state that affects your physical, mental, and emotional well-being, for better or for worse. And I’m here to guide you on your journey to living that life.

Let’s do this thing.

XO,

Lauren