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.

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 :)