I know I’m not the only mama out there who feels overwhelmed with to-do lists, worn-out, and exhausted from trying to keep things at work, home, and beyond under control.
As I’ve shared before, I had a really tough time going back to work full time after having Baby Cupcake. Most of my stress had to do with being sick for the whole pregnancy, getting mono after the pregnancy, being in school full-time, having a demanding job, and taking care of a too-large house. Thankfully, we are all healthy now and I finished school, which eliminated those stressors. Finding a new job was another important step to help with my work/home balance. But we’ve done a couple of other things that have also lessened stress: Downsized and declutter.
Downsize: Not everyone wants to or can sell your house like I shared about here, but think about other ways that you can downsize. For us, we simply did not need or want a four bedroom house when we just had a small family of 3. You may downsize in other ways: Do you need to have large, expensive birthday parties? Do you need to do every holiday activity? We found that by downsizing the scale and amount of activities we do helps our family feel more sane. When we try to do everything BIG, we end up maxing out our budget and our energies and then find we can’t truly enjoy it. Another benefit: when you decide to begin downsizing, you will pay closer attention and carefully select the activities you DO want to spend time and money on, and then you appreciate it more!
Declutter: Does it spark joy? I haven’t watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo yet (I think I’m afraid to!), but when we downsized it also forced us to declutter. We’ve lived in our apartment for 9 months now, and we thought we had tossed out everything possible. We thought we were at the bare bones. But my husband and I just looked around our apartment last week and we filled two trash bags of donations and found multiple items we just don’t need to store anymore. We also found a new way to organize our bathroom cabinets and ended up with an empty shelf! When I have less clutter around, it frees up my mind to think about the important things. There’s less to clean, maintain, and move around. When I declutter, I do one of three things:
- If I want to keep it, I find a better, more organized place to store it, so it’s put away and not just laying around. Command hooks and baskets are my best friends!
- If I don’t need it and it’s in good condition, I sell it and make some extra cash! I’ve had the best luck on Facebook Marketplace and I simply meet buyers inside a Quik Trip for a safe, fast, sale.
- If I don’t have the time to sell or I don’t think anyone will buy it, I take it to a local charity or Goodwill.
I still have much more growth to do in this area, but downsizing and decluttering has changed our lives. I feel more organized, less stressed, and have more time to do the things I want to do. For me, that means more time on my own personal hobbies, self-care, and with my friends and family!
What do you have lying around your house that you could reorganize, sell, or donate?
nectarine / 2018 posts
Love this! We keep a box in DH’s closet for things to donate and a box in our garage for things to sell. As soon as the box in DH’s closet is full he drops it off at a donation center near his work. I tackle the things to sell whenever I have some extra time. Our police station has spots set aside for people meeting to sell/buy things, so we typically go there. We are constantly going around finding things we don’t need. I think once you start the process and get used to having less, you really do discover all of the random extras just taking up space. Every time I think “this is it, we have nothing left to purge” I walk around a week later and find more.
pear / 1565 posts
I love not living in a big house too; for me if there is space, you’re gonna end up filling it. We’re in a 3 bedroom and will have 3 kids, but I grew up in an apartment so I’ve never felt like we needed a lot of space for quality living.
I am a super neat-freak and my favorite pass time is purging/organizing! BUT it’s been SO hard to find time to do that b/c of kids and working FT. I keep saying I need to just take a day off when the kids aren’t at home and do just that!
pomelo / 5621 posts
I’ve been decluttering and organizing while I’ve been on maternity leave. I tacklenone closet or area at a time. We are going to have a garage sale in a couple weeks. Whatever we don’t sell is getting donated.
As DS2 has been outgrowing clothes/things I’ve been selling right away as to not clutter our house up with stuff we don’t need.
blogger / olive / 52 posts
@catgirl: YES! I’ve started keeping a tub in Fitz’s closet to put things in he is done with, but I want to hold on to, and one for donations/sales. It helps to just do in ongoing, rather than wait for things to pile up!
blogger / olive / 52 posts
@graceandjoy: There are so many fun declutter challenges online that I haven’t tried yet, but want to. https://loveandmarriageblog.com/30-day-de-clutter-challenge/ has one I’ve been wanting to try, and it may help you to chunk it out with your busy schedule!
pomelo / 5084 posts
Love this post. It’s in vogue where we live to buy the absolute largest house you can possibly afford even if it’s a stretch. That makes no sense to me. More to clean!!!! lol. We purge and donate regularly, especially my son’s clothes and toys. I haven’t tried selling anything but I’m intrigued.