Who needs a little spring cleaning? Imagine me raising my hand and jumping up and down right about now.
Just the other day I walked down to our storage room, and I wanted to throw up. Stuff. Everywhere. I thought about lighting it on fire, but ya know…safety and all that. So instead I closed the door and pretended it wasn’t there.
But it is there. Still. And instead of thinking it’s going to disappear on its own, I’ve decided it’s time to go all-in and get ready for some legit spring cleaning (yay and boo!).
Seeing how much extra junk we have lying around makes me sort of like the idea of being a minimalist. But I could never really be one because, one, I have children (that’s my cop-out answer), and two, I like stuff (okay, that’s my real answer). I don’t care to have a lot of stuff, but I like having new stuff, and isn’t the foundation of minimalism the belief that you don’t need stuff like you think you do? Hmm. That could be a tough one since stuff makes me happy (Please, no emails on how I need perspective…or Jesus. I’m all set.)
Even with my love for new stuff, I do have one key ingredient that could make me a pretty badass minimalist. I love throwing stuff away. It’s like that soft, happy little buzz you get after a glass of wine. It’s like feeling the sunshine on your back when it’s been behind the clouds for months. I love cleaning off counter tops, I love getting rid of junk that takes up space, and I love, LOVE how a room looks and feels when unnecessary crap is in the garbage. I just don’t take the time to do it that often. Which is why our storage room gives me all the anxiety.
So if something makes me that happy, why do I have such a hard time carving out the time to do it? Well, because once the junk piles up, it becomes overwhelming, and then I become paralyzed. But ya know what my mama would say to that? “Well, Coco, make yourself a list and take it one thing at a time. A little every day goes a long way” (God, I miss her).
So, my lovelies, I’ve put together this list. Some of it I came up with on my own, and some of it I borrowed from a random magazine I recently read. You’ll notice that it’s not just about throwing away tangible junk because sometimes we need to clean out the mental and emotional junk too.
I’ll be putting up the image below on my Facebook page so you can access it easily. It’s also ready for you to pin if you want to save it that way. AND I’ll be documenting my own spring cleaning journey on my Instagram stories, so you can always follow along for the Daily To-Do!
You in? Awesome. Here we go.
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But, First. Get Your Mind Right
If there is ONE thing that holds me back from throwing stuff away, it’s sentimentality. It’s easy to get caught up in feeling like I have to hold on to a thing so I can keep a moment alive. However, when I let myself be ruthless in purging, I notice that my fears never actually play out. I never lose the sentimentality just because I let go of an actual thing.
So whenever I prepare myself for one of my purging sessions, I tell myself that it’s time to be ruthless (I’m a pep talk kind of gal). If I get stuck on something I ask myself, “How long has it been since I’ve used this,” and “Does this bring me joy?” If I can’t remember when I used it or it doesn’t bring me joy, I toss it.
Just the other day, I found this bib I had bought for Gray. All it said was, “My First Valentine’s Day.” I thought about keeping it because it was the bib he was wearing the last time he ever got to see my mom (see what I mean about sentimentality?). But the bib had been stuffed in a bag for over three years, I had no intention of using it again, and it didn’t actually bring me any joy. So I held it for a second, and then I released it.
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So here we go. You can do this. You can be decisive. You can be ruthless. You can clean out junk in a way that no one has ever cleaned out junk before.
Ur a Mom Now.
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