Out with the Unwanted, In with the Peace!

I discovered a philosophy/way of life, whatever you want to call it, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY, several-several years ago. It was at a time when I had a newborn, 2 small children and a small house. Mark was working at a job that didn't pay him more often than not(they still owe him over $40K). I found VS and thought it sounded like a wonderful way of life, so we started downsizing, scaling back, looking at our spending/acquiring habits and so forth. We moved back home, in with my parents for a while, and are now renting their former home from them. The newborn is now approaching 7 years of age and life has flown by like a whirlwind. No time for VS!!! That seems to be my biggest problem. We aquire things not necessarily by purchasing them. I'd say 30% or more are things given to us or found items. Still, they are coming into our home at an alarming rate and not leaving nearly as frequently. Other areas of our lives have become more simple, our eating habits are much better, no canned or boxed foods(ok, VERY occasionally we get boxed mac and cheese- like 2-3x a year). We don't do every kids activity there is, we choose free or very low cost activities, bring our lunches, use healthy cleaning products like baking soda and vinegar, and so forth.

Sooooo, today will mark the first day in my latest attempt to control our clutter situation, just one facet of the many VS has. I plan to go through every drawer, every shelf, every nook and cranny and rid us of all the excess, unused, unloved "stuff" we have. Just because it is out of the way doesn't mean it is ok to keep it. Someone else might benefit from the "lite brite" sitting in my bedroom floor or the too-small dress shoes in the girls' closet or any other wonderful item that is residing in my home, useless to me, a treasure to someone else.

Wish me LUCK!!!! I'm gonna need it!