I have been in recovery for about 3 months now and it has not been easy. I have managed to resist acquiring more stuff, but I am having a hard time parting with my beloved crap. I am taking it one day at a time, but that makes for slow rewards. My New Year's resolution (well, one of them anyway,) is to streamline this house for minimal stuff and maximum efficiency. We live in a relatively small place (a family of 5 in 1032 sq. ft.) which I believe can work out nicely but I live in a state of controlled chaos. I spend a lot of time fighting my piles. In December and January, I was on a roll. I was taking a laundry basket of stuff to the goodwill every other day. In February, however, I have slowed down. No, I have stopped. Partly because, I had to catch up on housework but mostly because it was easy getting rid of stuff that is obviously crap. It is not easy making choices about things I like, but don't really need or use. AND, it is easy to get rid of the kids stuff, but now it's down to all my stuff. The biggest hold up is the craft closet(s). I save every old t-shirt, sweater and pair of jeans for re-purposing purposes but I can't really sew until I organize the craft closet which I can't really organize because of all the piles of things to be sewn. It is all so overwhelming that instead of doing anything, I play Word Twist. You can see the pickle I am in. So...today I sew. I will ignore laundry and sweeping and dog walking and I will sew! I will finish some old projects and start some new ones. I will make produce and snack bags, pj's for the kids, cloth pads for moi and I am especially inspired by these pot holders and all of her stuff. I love the collage-i-ness of it all and I am DIRE need of aprons. So...here I go....
Alison says:
ReplyDeleteI'm absurdly happy when recycling day rolls around and I've managed to shove out a couple extra bags of unnecessary paper from my shelves and "piles." De-cluttering is one of my major goals for 2010. I'm going to have a big yard sale this spring to clean house. Part of my "found money" strategy. Maybe you could part with some things for $, Josie. Erica, you will be amused to know we used to have yard sales with friends at a friend's house on Cascadilla St. Some friends made $1K+. We were well rewarded for our items, too.
I love architect Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House/Life ideas. We also have a house with a small footprint, slightly better ratios than yours with just 4 in the ~1100 sf. We are hoping to do some careful expanding, tho. Only 1 bathroom, none upstairs, and the third BR is a walk-thru. My biggest beef with the house is that it has no relationship with the backyard and the indoor-outdoor lifestyle I want is compromised by this.
Josie, you're right, those blogs are so inspiring! I added them to the blogroll. I keep forgetting to ask you on the phone how your sewing day turned out.
ReplyDeleteAlison - tell me more about Sarah Susanka. Does she have a blog? A book? I guess I could Google her myself...