My Moment of Garage Zen

So I've been feeling a little whelmed lately. Not overwhelmed, but whelmed. As you may know if you've been reading recent posts, I am on a mission to seek and destroy clutter in the house. But even anti-clutter superheroes have their bad days.

Our weekend began by tackling the Christmas decorations. Yes, we still had them up. I was so tired from the awful cold I had last weekend, and Michael won me over with his "who cares if the Christmas decorations are still up?" argument. Like I said, I was too tired to care.

But by Monday, I cared. And the Christmas stuff bugged me all week.

So during naptime on Saturday, all evidence of holiday cheer was packed away. But we still hadn't tackled the real source of my irritation -- the general clutter scattered just about everywhere.

We plugged away at it throughout the weekend, stopping for various reasons -- to eat, change a diaper, buy a file cabinet, watch a movie...you know. The usual stuff. But I started getting really down Sunday night because of this:

Empty shelves in the garage (good), random stuff sitting in the middle of the garage (not good), both cars sitting in the driveway (not good at all). 

I hate it when randomly placed items displace my car. And I just hate starting a week with an incomplete house project still on my plate. I mean, all we needed to do was put the random stuff somewhere and pull the cars in, but I still felt annoyed. 

Then, I managed to pull myself out of my grumpy mood for a minute and think about what we have accomplished in two days. The Christmas stuff is put away. (Yay!) We have a much smaller file cabinet that will free up more space in our house. (Yay!) Three boxes of baby clothes are boxed up and appropriately stashed in the garage. (Yay!)

I started to feel a little better after taking the photo above. I turned around to go back in the house after capturing my anti-clutter photographic evidence, and I saw this:

Now. If you know me at all, you know I'm an incredibly sappy person. Most people wouldn't see anything in the picture above but a group of ski boots.

What did I see? (Okay, hear me out. I'm about to get super sappy on you...) I saw evidence of a family. 

You know when something happens to you in your life, something totally unexpected, and you just kind of go, okay....I've been missing the bigger picture here. Well, something outside of myself seemed to turn my eyes right on those boots, as if to say, look -- you're frustrated, but you have a reason to HAVE little ski boots in your house. You're lucky.

So after spending a weekend hating all the STUFF around here, I've had a change of heart. Yes, some of it is useless and taking up space. Some of it annoys me to no end. But even the irritating stuff is part of who we are -- a family. A family with faults, but one that's trying to enjoy life and take one day at a time. And although our house is filled with a lot of unorganized clutter, it is also filled with love and laughter.

I just hope I can remember that while tackling the clutter in the laundry room.

Wish me luck.

Pondering a new year

I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions. But this year -- for some reason -- I feel somewhat compelled to at least entertain the notion.

I did a little brainstorming -- following some guidelines from Simple Mom -- and discovered a couple of recurring themes. One: home clutter is making me crazy. Two: incorporating gratitude in daily life is important to me.

Luckily, these are two actionable items. As for clutter -- it's not easy, but it's a matter of taking time to GET IT OUT. In fact, one of the phrases I jotted down during my brainstorming session was "give things a home or get them out." I think that's a good place to start. If I'm saving something because maybe I'll need it, or I haven't looked at it in a year, or I didn't even know I had it, why am I keeping it??? I am a person who becomes mentally and emotionally cluttered when I'm overwhelmed by stuff. It's time to give myself the clarity I need by clearing out my closets, drawers and cabinets.

As for gratitude -- I realized I have the perfect outlet for bringing more into my life, and you're looking at it. My goal is to make a weekly blog posting about the things in my life I'm grateful for. Especially since I've become a mom, I often have "grateful moments" at the most random of times. It may be a simple, unprompted "thank you" sign from Kellan when I give him a snack or pull a toy out from under the sofa. It may be a little squeeze on the shoulder from Michael that reminds me we're in this life together. Whatever it is, it's time to document those little things that make my life worth living.  

So, how am I doing on both fronts? Well, this weekend I found a couple of cheap organizing items at Target that helped me control some of the clutter in Kellan's room in 10 minutes. I also spent about 30 minutes gutting the refrigerator and cleaning shelves. I wish I had photos to share, but trust me. It was in that state where container upon container is precariously balanced and you're kind of scared something will fall out on you when you open it. It was bad. 

On the gratitude front -- I had a moment during storytime tonight. We got to the part in Time for Bed where the mommy in the book tucks her little one in. Kellan always points to her and says, "Mommy!" I always reply "Yeah, that's right." At that point, he usually puts his hand on my arm and says, "Mommy." That alone melts my heart. But tonight, he gave my arm a firm squeeze, looked up into my eyes, and smiled. I can assure you at that moment I was not thinking about his lengthy crying jag after waking up from today's nap, or about the rice throwing incident (yeah, the sticky kind) at dinner. It just hit me what a sweet boy he is and how lucky I am to have him.

So I may not have traditional New Year's resolutions this year, but I think I have something that makes sense for me. A couple of important, doable areas to work on that will bring more clarity and joy into my life. And isn't that what resolutions are supposed to be about?