The stuff we hold, holds us back #40bags40days

Did I really fill forty bags with junk to throw away? Well… truthfully, around bag seven, I stopped keeping track.

Even though the forty days is over, I’m still organizing hot spot areas (kitchen counters and table always get piled on!).

I’ve had a few laughs: like how pre- and early-internet, I printed out EVERYTHING to file for “safekeeping.” And never looked at it again! Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Or how in my giant file cabinet drawer of recipes, I found a recipe card for a dessert called: “Raspberries & Cream” … let that one sink in. Yes. The ingredients called for Raspberries. And cream. The directions (I must have thought I’d be senile really early because I actually wrote out directions!) said to “Put raspberries in a bowl and pour cream on top.” Wow. Genius.

I’ve had a few embarrassing moments I shared on Instagram. Like the “before” picture of my office:

To be fair, the office was the last stop in my #40bags40days tour, and as such, became the dumping ground for everything I couldn’t figure out what to do with from the other rooms.

A few hours of serious attention to all those piles of paper (and help from my desktop scanner), I was happily able to share the “after” photo:

Through all this cleaning, I kept asking myself: “Why?” Why do we have so much “stuff?” I could see how the things I was holding onto were holding me back:

~I couldn’t find items I needed. I was always misplacing important notes and numbers.

~I could never find my cell phone (this is not likely to change!). Usually buried under papers.

~It was in the way! Our family was always working around or moving my “piles.” (It’s clutter, but a neat clutter!).

~My stuff was taking me away from my family. Although I’m happy I did the challenge, I spent a LOT of this month just cleaning and organizing. That was time away from my family (well, they were playing near me, but…). Of course, this was necessary, but if I hadn’t let things get so cluttery, I wouldn’t have had to interrupt our preschooling fun for this huge spring cleaning work!

~Cleaning the house was an irritation. I love a clean house. And it’s so much easier to clean a house when it’s not cluttered. It goes easy, and looks great when the counters, shelves, and desks are cleared.

~It’s not setting a good example. I can’t expect my children to understand the value of picking up their toy clutter when my mail, blog and writing paperwork is always all over!

It’s been over forty days, and I have not ONE time missed a single item I removed from the house. It’s easier to stay organized because I know exactly where things will go (and there’s SPACE for it now).

For instance, my mom came over last week with a handful of papers – birthday party menu ideas. Paper clutter like this is my Achilles Heel. Usually I would have dropped the papers on my desk to deal with later, unsure what I wanted to do with them. Not anymore!

I said, “Thanks, mom!” and walked over to my newly cleaned file cabinet, and dropped them right into the folder labeled: “Menus.” Easy-peasy, and no paper clutter.

Once I finalize the last few spots in the house, I’m turning my attention to another area that gets cluttered: my digital devices. I’ll be spending time deleting and organizing photos, computer files, flash drives, and CD storage!

I’m not going to hold onto needless things anymore. I’m not going to be held back by all the stuff!

Have you done any spring cleaning?

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.