If you’ve been following the blog, you know that in July, I took on the Freedom from Clutter Challenge…  and I need to report what happened!

I was super good in the beginning, like we all can be.  Every day, I found my four items and it was wonderful.  I took several loads over to the free store and the place was really lightening up!  At first it was EASY!  There were so many little things that I was kinda holding on to and yet really didn’t want…  knick knacks, books, etc.  Easy!

However, by the first ten days or so, and 40+ items gone… it got a little harder.  I found myself slipping a bit.  I would miss a day, but I would make it up, 8 items, 12 items…

It was a bit more of challenge.  Just was.  I have been working at decluttering my life for years now.  Honestly, easily over 8 years.  I have just been at it for ever it seems.  And I finally feel like I have reached a good stopping point!  I am so thrilled.  I made it up until the last week.  The last load went over and it was a wee bit shy of the total 124 items.  I made it to 115.

I think I could have perhaps found a few more things but I decided, that enough was enough.  When I look around the house, I see clean, clear, no clutter.   It feels fantastic.   Even the girls were amazed.   Of course, they have their own spaces and they can be a little ah, cluttered… but hopefully seeing the rest of the house, they will be inspired to finish up and get to a very happy point.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything around.  Or that my living space is spartan and empty.  Nope.  Still got the stuff that means something to me.   But the nice thing is that it ALL MEANS SOMETHING to me!  It does!  Sure there are a few things that I wouldn’t be going after in a fire.  But right now, I am enjoying them.   And I have really made some awesome strides in personal papers and memorabilia.  That was a huge area that really benefited from this challenge.  My box system seems to really be working.   I still have about a dozen boxes from the storage room to go through, but I want to take those easily, comfortably.  A trip down memory lane in a cool fall day with a cup of tea and a free afternoon.  I feel I can cut those in half, just sorting out the fluff and keeping to good stuff.

One of my goals for the coming winter is to get back into scrapbooking.  And genealogy.  They seem to go hand in hand…  I love both.  Once I get the rest of my dozen boxes sorted down, then I can start to see what I have and how best to store and display it.   I do know that I want to start scanning things…  documents and papers and such.  But I do want to research how to do it, that makes sense.  How it can be easily stored in a sort of accessible library.  I want a rhyme and reason to the files and folders once finished.  That will require a little bit of forethought and some ideas.

Well, in the end, I think it was a remarkable challenge and I’m very excited that I did it.   It was not that hard, really, 4 items a day is not too hard if you have the desire.   I liked that it was not some huge undertaking, a massive purge and such that messes up your house and is likely to make you a bit crazy.  Usually, it just took me a few minutes to go around and pick out the victims of the day!  My box would fill up pretty fast!  Towards the end, yes, it was getting tough.  However, that was mainly due to this challenge being the final end of my long journey!

Please give it a try!   Doesn’t have to be July…  it can be any month!  Just 4 a day.  Or 2 a day, whatever works for you.  It does feel good.  It does!