The other day I was attempting to clean up Juniper’s room. Well, actually, I was attempting to do as little work in there as possible. Sometimes I can get her to clean it all up mostly by herself. This day though, she was just not cooperating. To make a long story short, I was sick and had little patience for her spunky three-year-old attitude. (Which is actually QUITE adorable but I’ll wait until she’s much, much older before I tell her that!) So I decided, with my amazing mama-wisdom, to teach her a lesson. I took every single toy out of her room and shut them in my closet. (Yes, I have a big closet.)
So now I’m sitting there thinking ‘mwahaha, I’ll show you’, and how does Juniper react? Well, first she stares for a minute before saying ‘You didn’t take mine rocking chair’ all matter-of-fact. (So I took that too.) And then she didn’t really react at all. She just went about her business as if nothing had happened. In fact, putting her to bed was super easy because there weren’t a bunch of stuffed animals that HAD to be arranged just so! I was a little amazed, and I’ll admit, a little irritated that it didn’t bother her very much.
It was two full days before she even asked to play with any of her toys, and all she wanted was her Rainbow Dash pony and her dress up clothes. Yesterday I took her play food back out and her Tinkerbell kitchen, because Flynn likes to play with them. He’s so funny.
As I walked past her room the other day, a thought hit me. I’m too attached to physical things. I’ve tried to de-clutter our home countless times, but I always have a hard time deciding what should stay and what should go. What if I just boxed everything up and only took back the things we love and need? This house would be a lot easier to clean for one thing. We have got.. I don’t even honestly know how many, boxes of stuff in our basement. Some we brought from FL, and some are Shaun’s from his mom’s house. It’s my goal this month to finally go through them all and start organizing this awesome house we get to live in.
Obviously I’m not making any new discoveries here. Things = Clutter = Craziness = Unhappiness. Here I thought I was teaching Juniper a lesson, and I’m the one learning. It’s nice to be reminded that just because I’m a mama, doesn’t mean I always know what’s best.
I totally know how you feel! When we moved to Hawaii we had to get rid of almost everything and the kids got to choose to toy items to keep, Legos and nerf toys were chosen, I was the only one who was , but it feels so good to free of all that stuff! The house stays much cleaner! Do it!!
I started boxing a bunch of stuff up last night. The plan is to box up ALL the clutter and stick it downstairs, and then take one box out at a time and go from there! We got rid of lots when we moved from FL to MO and it was awesome. (Of course then we inherited all of Shaun's old stuff so now we have more than we did before!)
Well look at you go! Do make sure that you ask Shaun at some point if there is anything super important that he would really like to keep. If he doesn't claim it . . . well, set the boxes aside in the garage and what doesn't even get looked at for six months or a year . . . GOOD BYE! (so easy for ME to say, right?)
Don't get too excited I haven't actually started yet! And you know me, all talk haha!
I have the same problem and it is so hard to let go of the scrapbook paper that has the most perfect pattern, or the shoes you got for a screaming deal and you never wear them, etc… I need to get rid of so many things.
I have one rule: never get rid of crafty supplies! Ha! (So glad I have a separate room to store all my supplies!) But man oh man there is just so much other stuff. And I am such a sucker for shopping. I need to just always forget my wallet at home.