When I first started out as a mom, I thought that part of being a good parent was providing quality, creative, imaginative toys for my children. And although we didn’t have a ton of money, I carefully curated, through gifts and Craigslist and estate sales, a beautiful and quite large collection of “quality” toys.
We were drowning in stuff.
We’ve been on the journey toward simplifying our lives for almost 5 years now; but we really got serious about it last year. We scheduled regular pickups with the Salvation Army, and went through every single item in our home, keeping only what was regularly used or loved. There were some tough decisions to make…only those things that we daily or weekly used were kept.
The freedom that’s come from having less has been life changing. I didn’t keep a tally of how much we passed along to others…but it was an incredible amount of items that monthly left our home. Our home feels so much lighter and and it is SOO much easier to keep up with the daily chores. The kids play far better and don’t struggle to clean up when they’re finished playing.
It’s not perfect. There are still five kids who live here, and there’s clear evidence of that! But our days are spent enjoying each other instead of constantly picking up our stuff.
How is your stuff to life ratio, Mama? Is stuff stealing your joy and your time? In the coming weeks I’ll show you some of the spaces we’ve lightened up around our home. What is your favorite area in your home? Take a pic and tag me!
#Simplify
#Decluttering
#Toys
#FamilyLife
#Parenting
#Motherhood
#MomTruth
Next Door Hope 