I really wish that we had the rule of one thing in and one thing out but I really don’t know how I could go around doing that with the kids. I mean, how fair is it to have to get rid of one of your toys because you receive a gift? I know that my kids, or at least one of my kids, would have trouble with that but it is probably also a reflection of myself.

A few years ago (2006) I did have a real problem… there was one room that was so full of stuff that it was not usable. I recognized I had a problem, cleaned it up and turned it into my sewing room. I also vowed to stop going to thrift stores/Garage sales if I didn’t need something specific and I did just that. Now I go only if I need something in particular, only buy what I need and don’t care if I walk out empty handed.

If I look around my house now, I see a mess in places but it is things that we use that don’t have a home. Where I see the real clutter is mostly behind closed doors and in drawers etc… (Kitchen drawers and cupboards, closets, desk drawers and clothes) and that is what I now need to work on and when that is done then I feel that what we use will then finally gain a home and then we will have the upper hand… or at least I hope that that is what will happen.

I think I’ll join you, our crawl space and my craft areas are overflowing with stuff!

I understand!!! another book that was really helpfull for me was “l’art de la simplicité” by dominique loreau. A “golden rule”: did i use it in the last year? for the books, i always think if i want to read them again i can borrow them at the library. it is so freeing, but also so difficult at first, to get rid of “all this stuff”… maybe we’ve been squirells in the past lives, who knows! i wish you all the best for this decluttering period, keep us posted about what happened :o) take care!

No i haven’t read the book, but that kind of thing worked when my kids were younger (and when I had less kids…) minimizing toys and rotating toys and books etc was great!

I could have done more, I wish I had, but i had to deal with my own issues of buying too much and keeping too much. I did deal with it, or am still dealing with it, but now the kids have more say and I also need to respect that… they each have preferences, they have their own stuff, their own interests and they do their own natural rotation. My problem now is still in part the toys, but It is also our things, our books, our drawers, our hobbies etc… We just have too many things that we don’t use and we keep “just in case”… And too little space to keep them…