De-cluttering!

We are in the process of de-cluttering our lives, first, with the physical stuff, because that seemed easiest, and the physical stuff in our home is kind of stressful, so we figured, if we got rid of a lot of the physical stress, maybe we'd have a much easier time with the non-physical stuff.

Anyway, this is so exciting already!

Day one was Friday (the 19th). My mom came up and took the older 2 kids to her house for the entire day! I just had to take care of Benjamin, and drop off a paper for Jonathan.

My job on Friday was to relax, actually eat something, and think about what exactly we were going to clean and de-clutter first.

When Jonathan got home on Friday, we went through the kids' stuff in their room and in the living room. We took everything out, put it in plastic bags, and vacuumed their room (which hadn't been done in months because of all the stuff on their floor).

After we cleaned out their room, we went to Lewiston, went out to eat with just the three of us (Benjamin included), and then picked up the kids. We took Emmalyn's side rail off her crib, so now she has a toddler bed! She still hates it, but it's easier for us to put her down after she's fallen asleep.

On Saturday, Jonathan went through all the bags, and decided which toys he thought would be worth keeping. There were about 3 large garbage bags of toys and stuffed animals to go through. Then, he brought the worthy toys to me, and I picked out 5 for each child, which may not seem like a lot, but it really is, since the kids weren't able to play with all of them anyway, since there were so many of them!

So, the kids have 2 blankets, 2 stuffed animals, and 5 toys each. We moved the rocking chair to a different area in the room, so the kids could see each other while lying in their beds if they wanted (we thought it would be easier on Emmalyn to lay down and go to sleep if she saw Joey doing it, but it didn't work).

Sunday morning, after we went to church, we did some grocery shopping. Then we came home, and cleaned the food we wouldn't eat out of the pantry. My pantry is really neat and tidy now! It's awesome!
I tried to get Emmalyn to go to sleep that night, but she didn't, so Jonathan came in and got her to sleep, while I did a lot of the dishes (they haven't been washed in a week or two, and we literally had no bowls or plates or spoons). As they were done, we decided which dishes we'd keep out, and which were going to be put in storage.
We decided to keep 1 set of dishes (plates, bowls, mugs), and 2 plastic and 2 glass cups per adult, and 2 kid bowls, 2 kid cups, 2 kid spoons per child, and 2 sippy cups for Emmalyn.

The dishes aren't 100% done. Can I just say I hate Tupperware? Haha.

I didn't trip on any of the kids' toys this morning. I seriously feel like I can face the day without dreading the mess, or the whining children (who have still whined this morning, but I feel like I'm not going to lose my cool any minute). The only messes are on the kitchen table, the counters, the living room, and the hallway, which is actually quite a lot of mess still, but we've got 1/5 of the mess cleaned and de-cluttered. That may not seem like a lot, but it is actually HUGE for me.

I am SO excited to keep de-cluttering and minimizing our lives. I deleted Facebook and all of my games off my phone this morning. I was pretty proud of myself for that, because I am truly and embarrassingly addicted to my phone. I want to replace the time I spend on my phone with time I spend with my kids. I hope to not talk to anyone for weeks at a time (I only really talk to people online anyway), and have people wonder how or what I'm doing!

I'm also wondering how to keep people from getting and giving the kids toys. Some people buy them, and some people take what their children used to play with and give it to the kids. I honestly don't want any more toys for them. I guess I'd rather start a savings account for the kids, or start a vacation fund, or even have people give them Visa gift cards that the kids could use (like if they wanted a special dessert or a Mommy or Daddy date night, or go on a special trip, or get pictures done).

We also have a ton of books that don't get treated nicely. The books have always been in the kids' room, and Jonathan and I are tired of them. We decided that we're going to get 1 big, well made bookshelf for the living room, and put ALL of the family books there.

We're also trying to find tall, skinny, plastic colored hampers, so that each person has their own color hamper. It's actually hard to find different colored ones that are tall and skinny though.


Last night (2/22), we FINALLY got all the dishes washed and put away. We decluttered them, and this morning (2/23) I was SO excited that I only had like 4 dishes to wash!! I got them done, and my kitchen is still tidy! =D

Today after Jonathan gets home, we're going to clean the living room, and declutterize it too. I cannot wait to start living in total minimalism!

Our last room will be our room haha. It is ridiculous, and I have a feeling that I will be putting it off for a while...I'm kind of scared of it...I should just let Jonathan do it all, and I can take the kids and drive to like, Boise or something, and when I get back, he'll almost be done! ;) I'm not even sure what most of the stuff IS...