This entire decluttering process is due to the loss of a headband. For the record, it is not just any headband. It happens to be the best, cutest, most comfortable leopard print headband. It is also my favorite one and it is lost!
For the record, this loss runs utterly contrary to the nickname that my family gifted me with years ago. To them, mom is “the best finder,” and I wear this nickname like a badge of honor. If anything goes missing in our home, I usually lead a victorious search and rescue mission.
However, this particular summer morning finds me standing in my bedroom closet, where I spent the last hour dumping out every one of my purses and fabric containers on the shelves. I am a lone island, surrounded on every side by a multitude of clothing, hangers, and bags, determined to find this headband. I dig through the piles at my feet, realizing that it is too much.
If this were the only room inhabited by chaotic clutter, my frustration would seem inflated. Sadly, the master closet is not the only room packed to the brim of unused stuff. We officially reached capacity in a home that my husband and I never thought we could fill, one in such a sad state our teenage boy recently remarked, “Mom, we need to do a huge cleanout.”
Making Space
If I am being honest, I tried to organize my home many times before. I read books, bought bins, created labels, and boldly declared the launching of “Operation Organization 2005 or 2010, or 2016.” You get the picture. The truth is that any organizational system will fail without first working through intense decluttering.
I am not striving for minimalism. I also lack the talent and patience to color-code every drawer in my home. My goal is simple: to make space for all the pretties in my life. Pretties do not only refer to material possessions or antiques and heirlooms. A pretty can be the joy of returning home to be greeted by tidy rooms or having a bookcase that displays only the most valued items instead of being choked out by trivial knick-knacks. Pretty can come from the ease of locating paperwork without digging through dated junk mail.
Or how about the prettiest pretty of all? What if completing my entire decluttering process awarded me with the gift of time. Because at the end of the day, every search and rescue mission conducted costs us slivers of our lives. What if clutter is holding my time hostage? What a sobering thought.
My Decluttering Plan
So here is the plan. I am beginning a summer-long decluttering process using several books as my guide. I carved out a week for each project, eleven areas, fully understanding that time frames may need to be adjusted.
How about you? Do you have areas that need to be tackled in your own home but don’t necessarily want to begin that journey alone?
Would you like to join me throughout this process? Each week, I will be sharing the areas that I have tackled, how they went, pictures, and any tips that I gained from the process.
So let’s get started on a curated home with enough space for all the “pretties” in our lives. We’ll walk through this together, controlling the clutter and clearing out the junk, and who knows, maybe we will find the best headband ever along the way.
