Living room update!

If you read my post yesterday, this is a follow up to show you the HUGE progress that was made. Some other stuff you won't see in the photo is wall hangings that were taken down, and last night my husband fixed up the holes from them and then touched up the paint in a few areas. I am SO excited! So, in the following you will see the before, and then the after from our first attempt, and then the after after from yesterday! What a difference!

                                                                         Before

                                                                         After

                                                                  After, after!

Don't forget about the clutter in your head!

I have to keep telling myself this is a journey. Think, marathon, not sprint. I keep hearing that, but seriously, it's the best way to describe it. I have slowed down a wee bit on minimizing while focusing on getting everything done that needs to be. It has occurred to me lately that I just have too much going on again. Some things I can't avoid, much as I'd like to. But some things I just reeeeeeeeeeally didn't want to let go of, though I know it was at a point where it was creating more stress for myself, and more to do.

Ever heard that saying "too much of a good thing"? I definitely think there is. When it gets to the point where there's more of something than you can use in a year, yeah... Too much. Especially if it's creating more clutter/stress. I have gone through some slight obsessions. For example, baby legs. Heard of them? They're itty bitty leg warmers for babies. Seriously adorable, and very useful. So I took that, and ran with it! My daughter had almost 30 pair. It was INSANE. To think of the money I spent on that, when a few pair would have sufficed.

I read my devotional today and it was talking about the American dream. You know, bigger, better, faster, stronger... More more more. It's so hard for my generation especially with all the mommy wars, and social media. Everyone wants what others have. I do too, sometimes. I was just talking with my husband about this yesterday, actually! Then to have it right there in my face today was almost like the answer I was looking for.

Back to my original idea for this post (I saw something sparkly, sorry!) I tend to think SO much. I get the gut feelings, but the I have to rationalize EVERYTHING. I pretty much just drive myself crazy. So, when you decide to take it from gut, to brain, ask yourself these questions. Does this add value to my life, or stress? Do I really need ALL of this, or just some of it? If you find yourself thinking a ton about it, maybe talk about it out loud with someone. You never know, the answer just may come to you in a really unexpected way.

But my point is, I want to stress less. I am going to be taking the time to face these things that are stressing me out, and find a solution to them. Getting rid of the mental clutter, as well as the physical clutter :)

Do you have anything on your mind lately you're trying to sort out? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I hope my journey is helping others who're wanting to try this out as well!

Distractions, and a confession.

Distractions... They're everywhere. Electronics I think is a big one for us. The computer, the T.V. (we got rid of Dish last year then after a few months without it turned it back on), the Kindle, our phones. Geeeeeez! If I could just use them the way I intend to, it wouldn't be an issue. But I get caught up. I feel like we're missing out on life because of all of these distractions.

I want to be healthier. I want to put more time into my business. I want to get our house organized so that it's just maintenance after that. I want less stress, and more time. Yet I can't seem to break away from the distractions. I've also got books I've had for years that I want to read. I want to crochet more. Why do we do this to ourselves? I usually use these things as a reward or break when I've done a lot of work, but then that's where I get sucked in and can't break away.

So here it is, my confession. It's MY fault. I have the choice of where to put my focus, and sometimes, I don't make good decisions. I feel like until we admit things like this, it won't change. Yes, we have VERY busy lives. But the little bits of time I do have, I need to choose wisely what I do with that time. If I'm trying to get healthy, and I spend that time playing Candy Crush (DON'T PLAY IT IF YOU HAVEN'T, it's addicting), even 10 minutes at a time 5 times a day. That's 50 minutes of my day I can't get back. Why not 10 minutes of Candy Crush, 30 minutes of working out, and 10 minutes tidying up the house? There are lots of options, but I just have to stop making excuses, and get to it!

No one likes to have these things pointed out by others, because we get defensive. So, let's sit down and think to ourselves about it instead, and admit to ourselves what our weakness' are, and if we're wanting real change. I definitely do, so this is me giving myself a swift kick in the butt, and signing off to get some stuff done :)

To go along with minimalism

We have taken so many car loads to the local mission lately, that we are slowing down a little bit and focusing on some projects we've been needing to get done. Something that's come up lately, is re-purposing things. I feel like this goes hand and hand with minimalism. My biggest issue with buying new things, is there might be something you already have that you can use, and save from just being thrown into a landfill.

For example. We have these outdoor chairs that have just had it. For a bit my husband and I wanted to go get new chairs, but we haven't yet. Next thing we know, he and our oldest son are out in the shed doing "man stuff" and BOOM, a bench for our fire pit! He had some leftover wood, and also found part of an extra shutter out there.

Another example. I really need some kind of shelf to clip my desk lamp to in my work area. The last time my husband was in the attic, he found a broken shelf and brought it down. This was almost a year ago when we first moved in here. He fixed it, and painted it, and now it's ready to be put up!

I think the biggest gain from this though, is our son is on his way to becoming a man. He's about to turn 9 this year, and honestly that just feels so big to me. I mean, he's going to be half way to being an adult! There is a 4.5 year age difference between him and his little brother, and my husband and I just both feel it's a really good time for them (father and son) to start bonding. He's not exactly interested in what our 4 year old is. So to go along with what we're gaining from minimalism, they are building on their relationship. These are memories our son will have for the rest of his life!

Another bedroom down! Our sons room!

This weekend I helped my oldest son with his room. I have been dreading this because he wants to hold onto everything. I'm talking rocks from outside, acorns, papers galore, ect. His room isn't tiny, but it's not that big. He has a full size bed in there, a dresser, and a desk. His desk was full of papers and all kinds of stuff. He had even stashed stuff under his bed, and in his closet. It took a good few hours with breaks between to get it done.

But you know what? I think I planted a seed. I had him bring one drawer full of items to the middle of the floor, and we created 3 piles. Throw away, give away, and put away. When everything was said and done, we had an entire box of donations, 90% of his items had a place (we're looking for some smaller sized bins for lego's and such) and he got rid of most of his papers and misc items he brought in from outside. I think he even had fun!

When we first started it, he didn't want to really get rid of much, but when he saw the piles filling up, he got more into it! We humans are very visual. It seems like with me and my family especially, the more progress we SEE, the more we want to do! What I really liked about this experience, is that he was fully involved, and I could almost see the way he was thinking change! I hope that this will help him as he grows up, so that things are always manageable for him and stress free!

I highly encourage you to try this with your child if they're at an age where they can help you. For one, it's always nice to have company when doing this, and two, they might really enjoy it :)

Our bedroom. One HUGE task we've been avoiding since we moved in.

A little back story. We bought our house in Feb of 2013. It has 4 bedrooms so each of our children finally have their own room. One of the rooms used to be a garage, so we do not have one. We have a little shed in the back of the property, but it's not fit for storage. So, our closet is our storage. No real attic to speak of, or basement. That's it. Now, our bedroom is ENORMOUS! Which you'd think is great, right? But the issue is it is also my craft/office, and our workout room. So, too much going on to say the least.

My parents are here for a few days, so instead of them watching the kids so we could have a date (I'm too sick to go out anyway) we asked them to watch the little ones so we could figure out our bedroom and closet. I know, so romantic :) It took us a solid 2 hours. We went through probably 85% of our belongings both in our room and closet. Let me tell you, it was no easy task. Boxes and boxes of items and photo's and such we've had for years. Some things for decades.

We took a lot of trash out, and filled up my car with yet another load of donate items. I am only posting a few photo's because we still have a little work to do, but now we can do it here and there since the bulk of things are gone. I refuse to let it get to that point again. I refuse to bring in more things that will just take up space. Our lives are changing for the better so we can focus on what's really important :)

Please excuse the black squares. Hubby has a photo of him by the treadmill after his first deployment of non stop working out as motivation LOL.

2014 is going to be fantastic

Aside from still being sick, I have a feeling this year is going to start pretty well. We're already on a roll on our journey to minimalism. Really, we just want to keep up the momentum. And actually, my parents are here right now for a short visit. Our bedroom has really taken a back seat because we're trying to get the main rooms of our house in check, so our bedroom has been our catch all.

I think my new years resolution, is to be able to just maintain this new lifestyle. Meaning to have all the big things pretty much taken care of, and just maintain all that we've achieved. And also, to really get my business going, while keeping a minimalist mindset while doing it. Not having way too many supplies (I've had more than I need in a lot of things, and it's just created too much clutter)

Ok, maybe one more. To take better care of myself. Mentally, emotionally, and definitely physically. What are your new years resolutions?

Another view of our new lifestyle

Hey everybody, This is Danny (the husband). This is my first post on here, and I'm told it won't be my last. We just wanted to get another point of view on this minimalism thing we're trying out. My point of view is a little bit different than Stacey's. I think that's why we work together so well. It may also be why we butt heads sometimes...

I have to say, I was less than thrilled when Stacey mentioned minimalism. I thought "oh great, lets just get rid of all the stuff we spent so long collecting". Then as she started, and I started watching, I started thinking. She had me read a few posts on another minimalist blog, and it started to click with me too. We won't ever be a "true minimalist" family, but we can surely minimize our "stuff".

Today I went through my nightstand. I filled an entire small garbage basket with "stuff". I had old papers from our move, receipts, copies of deployment orders, books, medals, flashlights, and even sandpaper. Why did I have sandpaper in my nightstand? Beats me. So I trashed the trash, reorganized what I actually want in there, moved what didn't belong in there, and made a ton more room. The top became a catch all and an eye sore. Now it's functional and looks much better with just my watch case on display. 

We also cleaned out our linen closet. We found expired OTC meds, duplicate meds, and even empty boxes of meds we've used. So we gutted it completely, cleaned all the shelves, and chose more wisely what we put in there. We have our towels, face cloths, meds up high, and spare paper towels. We consolidated the meds, keeping only what we really needed, allergy and children's cough mostly, and some toiletries. Again we filled an entire small garbage basket.

So, seeing all that we've taken out of fairly small areas add up to this much, almost a full kitchen bag, I'm excited to see what we can do with the rest of the house. I may be less than thrilled for us to get to some areas, like the kitchen and my shed, but that's why it's a process. One step at a time. Plus, getting rid of all the "stuff" we don't need, will help us identify what we do need. Not what we WANT, but what we NEED. Then we can focus on quality, not quantity. If we aren't buying so much, we can buy better. Simple math that's escaped my mind for my entire life.

So I guess with that, I'm sold. We can start to live a better life with less, so we can focus on what's really important.

10 weekly goals- update

When I planned my weekly goals last Wednesday, I didn't plan on getting even sicker than I was. So, some things didn't get done unfortunately. Also, it's a busy time of the year with 3 kiddo's in 3 different schools. Different Christmas parties and such. That meant a lot of time and energy went into making/buying supplies for those parties.

So, that being said, if you'll notice the important things are crossed off. Time with family. I didn't get to cleaning my daughters room with her. But we've spent a lot of one on one time together this week none the less. I will likely not make a list for this week as I need to pretty much do nothing but rest. But this hopefully gives anyone following an idea to try :) Let me know if you've tried it and what you think!

Original 10 weekly goals post

10 weekly goals, and how we can apply it to our journey to minimalism.

I think lots of people make goals. Daily goals, weekly,  monthly, yearly. Hey, how about the whole 5 year plan idea? It all starts with goals in our minds, and then we typically put them into list form. Whether on actual paper, or digitally. I was so inspired by  Money Saving Mom's list of 10 blog post this week! I have been feeling very under the weather lately, and it's keeping me down both physically, and even mentally.

I think me being sick is just another wake up call. Hello, you're doing too much, stressing yourself out, and stretching yourself TOO thin, says the voice in my head. So, as much as I dislike being sick, I am choosing to use it as positive re-enforcement to do what I can, and slow down!

So, I made a list of 10, much like Crystals at Money Saving Mom. Here is a peek at my list:

Weekly 10

Family/motherly

1. Help Shaelyn clean her room, then play
2. Build a fort with Destin
3. Watch a movie with Logan, or play a game, his choice
4. Have a date Friday night at home with Danny, no distractions
5. Write a letter to my Grandma

Personal

6. Finish the book I started months ago (I pitched it, the book couldn't hold my interest)
7. Take 15-20 minutes of time to sit and reflect each day

Household

8. Pick one small room to deep clean/minimize/organize

Business

9. Clean/organize craft table.
10. Create measurements for bow sizes/styles

If you look at my list, you'll notice most of these things are using the minimalist idea. Especially the ones spending time with my family. My list will hopefully remind me to slow down, and smell the roses, but those are all things that really need to be done (especially taking time for my family members individually). I believe most of these things will be good for the soul, and good for my body to heal from whatever these cooties are that I have.

If you try this, let me know how it goes for you! I will follow up next Wednesday to update on my progress. I kept my list pretty simple, so I am hoping I will be able to accomplish each of these things fairly easily.

If you are going to do this, I strongly suggest if you are making a paper list, to put it somewhere that you'll see every day, or if you are going to do it digitally, set a reminder to check it daily :)