I’m going to go a bit out of my normal blog for the next few posts. This is partly because it’s where I’ve been the past few months. Mainly, though, where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing has been such a relief to me that I wanted to share my journey with you.

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know I love to organize things. When I went on my first missions trip with my church, my husband and I had only been married for a year. He was assigned to set up a computer network for the seminary office in Guatemala and I was given the task to organize the tool shed/garage/storage unit. The big room had become all of those places because things were literally thrown in there on top of each other. While others on the trip were building walls and painting, I worked alone in a big building organizing anything from screws and nails to boxes and furniture. It was the best time. The greatest part was when the missionary came in, I gave him the tour of where he could find everything, and I saw the look on his face that made all the sweat and scratches worth it all!

After buying a book on 10-minute organization when I was 16, to still reading magazines, books, and blogs on simplifying, I’m typically naturally intrigued by how others organize. I found a website/blog during Christmas break that talks about decluttering your life. I highly recommend her site: http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter.html. She mentions taking 15 minutes each day for 365 days to declutter something in your house so that by the time your year is over, you’ve decluttered for over 90 hours. Not only does she suggest you do this decluttering, she actually gives you printable calendars with recommendations for 365 days. I have been following her plan since January 1st. Well, I might have gotten a bit excited after finding it and started a bit early, but you get the picture.

There are things on there I never really thought about as a decluttering and simplifying topic. For example, one day’s task is to call the telephone people and put your name on the do-not-call list. I had previously done this years ago and our 5 years was apparently over due to the many calls we had been receiving. This was a nice reminder to take the 15 minutes to do this task. Now, we should have a bit more peace and quiet for both our cell and home phone which simplifies our lives.

Another task recently was to sit for 15 minutes and unsubscribe from email lists you signed up for on a whim and no longer read. Why continue to delete them day after day when you can hit one button and be freed from that task? As I was telling the kids the task I was working on (as I have the calendar printed out on the refrigerator), my daughter was so excited when she realized this was a possibility and said she was going to do that, as well.

As a natural part of life, we will make good decisions that add things to our life naturally. This is in no way sinful or bad; just a fact of life. Yet, when I do this, I tend to forget to let go of other things I’ve done or have from the past. I find a way to organize my life, my house, or my car so I can keep most everything. And, wait for it…I’m ready to simplify: to declutter.

How do you feel about the stuff in your life? Do you declutter? What part of your life needs simplifying?

Next time we meet we’ll talk about how to apply decluttering to all parts of our lives. For now, take a look at the decluttering site and see if it can help you on your simplifying journey.

©2017 Susan M. Sims

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