I’m starting my maternity leave today, so all of the posts this month have been written in advance and scheduled to allow me some time to prepare for Grant’s birth and for us to bond together as a family when he’s here. It’s about 2.5 weeks until he is due and we couldn’t be more excited. I’ll throw in a live update post when he’s here. So far, all I have to show is a huge belly :).
This month we are focusing on cleaning, organization, and frugal decorating. This is very personal to me since my track record in this area has been poor. Even though my family history is rift with OCD hoarding, it’s not an automatic life sentence for me. I can change the cycle any time I choose to, and I choose now.
I thought we would have moved to a larger house by now, but as my due date draws nearer and our home renovation is still not completed, I have to come to terms with fitting the 8 of us in our current home. I spent the last month digging deep and purging our home of most of our unessential things. I’ve eliminated half of my fabric stash, most of my other craft supplies, large pieces of furniture (even heirlooms, sniff), baby stuff (even though a baby is on the way!), a large amount of our clothing, and most of my business inventory.
It was so hard, but I’m so much happier!!!! We earned over $1,000 just selling off our excess things, which we have used to help finish our construction and buy more appropriate furniture for our needs. I was able to create a bedroom for my oldest son and move my office to an unfished part of the house.
A huge part of my inspiration is the show Clean House. I watch a back episode each afternoon on Netflix then get up and purge some more stuff! The show goes into some severely cluttered homes, helps the homeowners part with their unnecessary things and hold a huge garage sale. The proceeds from the sale are used to renovate the 3 messiest rooms in the home–and it’s amazing what they can do with a little bit of money!
Now that the clutter is gone, I’m able to do my housekeeping chores (real chores, like sweeping and dusting–not just moving clutter) in record time. The children are keeping their rooms clean too and I’m being an example for them. I’ll tell you more details of how we did it as the month goes on.
My heavens I cannot believe how fast your pregnancy has gone! You look great!
This post is so me. I have thinking/working on this for a while. We have moved 3 times in the past 13 months. With each move I have gotten rid of more and more things, but I still feel I can get rid of more. Instead of a bigger house I would actually like to be able to fit in my current house or eventually a smaller one. It is amazing the hold things can have on us. My biggest issue is sentiment. Those tiny little baby things and wedding (candle/dress, bouquet) are really hard to get rid of.
The Man is starting to like this idea even more. He mentioned to me the other day going through each room and baring down to the essentials with only a few extras.