Day 26: Decluttering the Kitchen (Part One!)

The Task:  We've been decluttering from the kitchen since the beginning of the project (the knives, the polka dot dishes, the microwave!) But the kitchen really needed a big overhaul.

The Why:  We've come to see that stuff begets stuff.  The more we accumulate, the more we think we need. A serving bowl to match that serving plate, a pretty tea towel for the new bread basket, a set of martini glasses to use with the cocktail shaker.  By getting rid of stuff we aren't just making our kitchen an easier place to cook and clean and entertain in, (and investing in a lifetime of much simpler moving days!) we're also choosing to be content with just enough and learning to be honest with ourselves about what we need and use.

The Plan:  Both Luke and I felt that it was important to go through the kitchen stuff together.  We both love to cook and bake and entertain, so we both needed a say in what stays and what goes.

So last night after getting the kids to bed, we decided to take every single item out of the kitchen, discuss whether to keep it or not, wash out the cabinets and put everything we were keeping back.  We wanted to take everything out rather than do a cabinet at a time so that we could really get a feel for how much stuff we've accumulated.  Then I was going to take pictures of my fabulous new minimalist-ish (I know that's not really a word) kitchen to share today.

The Reality:  We underestimated what a huge job it would be.  Where did all this stuff come from???

At quarter after ten the house looked like this... (and there's Luke, taking a well deserved break!) 

By 12:30 I was lying on the kitchen floor trying to do the math to figure out whether the narrower/deeper casserole dish or the wider/shallower one holds more food.  Luke wisely suggested that we give up and go to bed. 

Here's all the stuff we've committed to get rid of so far.  But we aren't done!

So tomorrow will be the minimalist-ish kitchen tour.  Today I'm going to drink good strong coffee and calculate the volumetric lasagna potential of all my casserole dishes.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 25: Switching to Paperless Billing

The Task:  To switch all of my paper bills and account statements to electronic bills.

The Why: I could probably wax poetic about how switching to online bills is so much better for the environment and will save trees, and of course all of that is true and good, but honestly my motivation here is to avoid the counter clutter and have less stuff to file away every month!

Besides, after sorting through all the books on Monday and dealing with the sentimental stuff yesterday, I needed an easy task that wouldn't tug at my heart too much, ya know? 

The How: I've been putting this off for a really long time (like,um....a year) because I thought it would be this big annoying task to go through all my bills and make the switch.  But apparently my bank has a service that allows you to switch all of your bills to online bills without even leaving their website....which kinda made me feel like a fool for putting it off for so long.

Total Time Spent: About 20 minutes.

The Verdict:  Some of my accounts were charging me a small fee for my monthly statements, so this switch is going to save me a few dollars every month.  And now when I stroll down to the mailbox at the end of my driveway it will be filled with only happy things like cards and letters and coupons!

But mostly, it's about the counter clutter.

You can read about the environmental benefits of switching to online bills here.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 24: Dealing with the Sentimental Stuff

The Task: To sort through my box of sentimental items I've been storing in the basement

The Why: I am not a very sentimental person.  I rented my wedding dress and have never regretted it, I recycle birthday cards upon receiving them, and my husband lost his wedding ring during our first year of marriage and it didn't create any real marital upset.  (He lost the replacement a couple years later, too.  He's now on wedding ring number three!)

Nonetheless, I do have one box of items in the basement that I haven't known what to do with. It's time to sort through that box.

The How: In order to remain in our home, all sentimental items must now be used, displayed, or properly archived (in the case of favourite photos and love notes.)

Here are a few things I try to keep in mind when sorting through sentimental stuff:

• We are not obligated to keep anything that is given to us.  Period.  Not gifts, not heirloom gravy boats, not my children's Sunday school craft projects.  Nothing.  That doesn't mean that I can't or won't keep some stuff, but I am not obligated to.  If the person who gave it to me wanted to forever control it's destiny they would have kept it.  I am the gate keeper to our home and our home is not a museum.

• Just because somebody passed something down to us doesn't necessarily mean that they treasured it.  I think sometimes that we are playing Old Maid with family heirlooms. Stuck with something they don't particularly want but would feel guilty shipping off to a thrift store, a family member passes the "treasure" on to us.  We are then stuck with it for the same reason until we can find somebody to pass it on to, and the cycle continues.  I don't want to play that game!  If it doesn't bring us joy, I need to send it off to the thrift store so that it can find its way into the hands of somebody who will treasure it. 

• Stuff is always just stuff.  The emotions attached to the item are not actually in any way attached to the item!  People are not memorialized by their stuff, either.  I look around my house and definitely am not hoping that one day my friends and family will treasure all the stuff I've collected.  I hope they will treasure memories of time spent and love shared, not serving dishes and picture frames and tea pots.  If we don't want to be memorialized by our belongings, why do we tend to think that our ancestors wanted to be memorialized by theirs?

•  Using our sentimental items will keep them sentimental.  We have a beautiful set of wedding china that was given to us by my (now passed) grandfather.  We use it every single week. We use it when the whole family gathers for a birthday, we use it to plate fancy desserts and serve tea.  My two year old has used it, my friends have used it, we have even broken a couple pieces.  One day when we are dead or ill, and my children have the task of going through our belongings I would rather them encounter a partial set of china that they have used countless times than a full set that sat behind glass their whole life. And if one of them chooses to take those dishes home that day, they will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are free to use (and in time, break) those dishes. 

• Which brings me to my last point: One day our kids will have to sort through every single item we have chosen to keep. I don't want to burden them with a house full of crap I couldn't bring myself to get rid of!

 The Verdict: There are a couple small items sitting on my counter while I decide what to do with them, but for the most part this task was easier than I expected.  Some old staff t-shirts from a job I loved have been added to the thrift store pile (I considered searching pinterest for a way to turn them into something, but it is time that they go), some childhood letters sent to my husband from his grandparents are in the family photo album to be read and enjoyed.  My raggedy thread bare baby blankie was way beyond being used for anything and became trash.

The tote is empty and I feel good about that.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 23: Purging the Books {Gulp.}

The Task:  Purge our book collection until it is a carefully chosen selection of books that we love, use, and refer to often.  The rest are going to the local library!

The Why:  I'm a homeschool mom.  And I like books.  When generous friends and neighbours pass their gently used children's books on to our family I act like I just found the gold ticket.  Instead of carefully sorting through the books and keeping only what we need, I hoard them in my basement for all of eternity.

I've tried to sell some in yard sales before.  I put a box of books out early in the morning, and throughout the day I find myself walking past the box thinking "oh, no, I can't get rid of this one." and "hmmm, I think I'd like to read this one again" and by noon half the box has made it back inside. This happens every. single. time.

Oh, and just for fun I decided this morning to go through my amazon account from the last year and discovered that since this time last year I have purchased  (please don't judge me...) seventy-eight books!  No wonder the UPS guy has started asking questions!

What we're keeping: 

and

 

• Books we want to read again (like, um, immediately)
• Books we intend to (actually) use as part of our children's education
• Cookbooks we use at least once a month
• Reference books that contain useful, up-to-date information and that are fun to browse through.
• Children's books that are delightful family favourites.

Books we aren't keeping: 

 and...

 

• Books we might maybe sort-of want to read again someday (If we ever really do decide to read them again, we can borrow them back from the library!)
• Books that look "educational" but we've never actually used.
• Cookbooks that only contain one or two recipes I really use (I'm copying the best recipes into my recipe binder and getting rid of the book. Why keep the whole book for just a few recipes?)
• Mediocre reference books.  (Almost anything can be looked up on the Internet at a moments notice) 
• Books full of pretty pictures but little information.  (I kept 2 decorating books, the rest are going to the library.  If I feel the need to drool over some pretty rooms or fabulous table settings or fantastic landscaping, isn't that what Pinterest is for?)

The Verdict: I have the books boxed up and ready to go as soon as the library opens tomorrow morning.  I'm surprisingly okay with this. I like knowing that many of them will be available at the library if we ever need them, but in the mean time they will be read and used and enjoyed instead of collecting dust.

And I don't need to store them anymore!

I've decided to start following the one in, one out rule for books.   When we bring home a new book, an old one must go.  Because we do school at home and have kids in different grades I think I will have to waive this rule for curriculum and the occasional reference material, which means I'll have to be all the more ruthless about the rest of the books in order to avoid ending up on an episode of Hoarders.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 20: We Cheated.

The rules (which were arbitrarily created by us the night before the project began)  clearly state that we aren't going to eat out unless invited as part of a social occasion.  Today we cheated.

It wasn't even a little accidental cheat like a drive through coffee and a muffin. It was a full blown we're-only-half-way-done-our-errands, the-kids-are-hungry, and-it's-too-rainy-for-a-picnic... rules shmules, we're going to Pizza Hut for lunch sort of cheat.

It just seemed...simpler.

And then we ran into the grocery store for a couple things, including lemons so that I could make fresh lemonade for my husband's birthday party this weekend and....

I forgot my reusable produce bags.

So today was kinda a big fat fail.  I'm going to go feed my kids banana smoothies and popcorn for supper.  It's that kind of day....

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!