"Gramma, you have too much stuff..." my 5 year old Grand-Daughter observes and laments as she attempts to help me clean and organize today. Out of the mouths of babes... yes, it's true, I have too much stuff. And about this time every year, at the start of a New Year, I go through the process of deciding what to keep... and what to purge? I don't know if you do it too? Perhaps your Home is even neat as a pin, uncluttered, dust free and organized... mine is not... really not. *le sigh* And therein lies my dilemma... as I get older and keeping on top of it all becomes somewhat overwhelming and extremely time consuming, I have to make difficult decisions about what can stay and what needs to go so that it becomes more manageable??? I actually have to make these decisions fairly frequently throughout the year in an attempt to edit and let go, but after the stroke of Midnight on December 31st it becomes somewhat of another obsession of mine to dig myself out and make room, have uncluttered space that is easier to keep tidy and clean and embark upon a major purge. We live in a dusty Desert environment, in a very large old house on an acre, that is full of people aged pre-school through Seniors... so it would be a full time job to maintain even if I didn't have all the stuff! It might be easier if I didn't have a love affair with most of my stuff... lovingly sought out and collected over a lifetime. I enjoy my lovelies and I have amassed an impressive array of beautiful things, many are unique, sentimental, OOAK, collectible or difficult to score now that their popularity has increased so its not just a bunch of worthless junk. But I have too much... and I know it... and its not as if I won't ever find another piece that I want to bring Home... so from time to time a purge is necessary... and it's NEVER easy. I keep telling myself that it's time to minimalize and seriously clean out every room, storage area, nook and cranny... but in so many ways I dread the process... I really do... because though some things are easy to let go of... many others are not and I agonize over that part of the process. And there are some types of items that I'm passionate about and really attached to, so getting rid of any of it would be sacrificial to me... like my Vintage Tablecloths, Jadeite or Religious Art. So what to do? Well, I take it one day at a time... one area at a time... and I've found that if I stick with it, the process does become easier and I make progress. I tell myself it must be done...otherwise I envision the crew here might have to do a Hoarders intervention and send fleets of those 1-800 Got-Junk Semi trucks over *LOL*... because after all, in their eyes it's definitely "Honey... Mom... Gramma... YOU HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!!!" *Wink*... Dawn... The Bohemian
Be sure to join us over at FADED CHARM for the first White Wednesday of 2011!