Organization Week(s)

Well, I'm hoping it will just be one week, but I'm guessing that it might be two or three!  One of my big goals for this summer is to finally go through all of the STUFF we have collected over the past few years and get rid of most of it.  It is amazing to me how many things have spontaneously accumulated in every drawer, cupboard, basket, bookshelf, and especially in the garage in the past year.  I think this is mostly due to the fact that we adopted three children, moved across the country into a temporary house (so we didn't really unpack) which then ended up being a little more long term (so we sort of unpacked but still sort of stashed. . . ) and then moved again (and have been unpacking little by little ever since) - oh yeah, and my husbands parents now live with us too and so all of their stuff is also in our garage.  

It actually doesn't really matter how we got here, what matters is that I am SO ready to live with less stuff!  I have finally figured out that I think it is the STUFF we have that really keeps me feeling busy and overwhelmed and not free to enjoy a sunny day outside with the kids or to take a day to go and help a neighbor as often as I would like (because I am home cleaning or sorting or taking care of stuff. . . or helping my kids learn to take care of their stuff).  I guess I just need less stuff. 

My friend Cyndy over at Walking Faithfully recently blogged about "Enoughness."  What constitutes "enough?"  I KNOW that the American concept of "enough" is way out of touch with the truth of what IS actually enough!  Is anyone else noticing that if you read or write the word "enough" enough times, it starts looking like it is misspelled?  

O.K.  So, the plan is:

Keep only what I know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (a great quote I remember from ???) 

Toss anything broken or useless

Give away anything I don't need to someone who I know DOES need it

Sell the rest at a yard sale in July

My husband's input:  We can have a yard sale IF, at the end of the yard sale, we load everything that is left into the back of a truck and take it to the dump.  I'm o.k. with that, so here we go. . . 

Here's another idea I MIGHT try: 

List on this blog everything that ends up in the KEEP pile - now, that would be accountability.  I wonder how much stuff we would all keep if we actually had to LIST it all out and then let other people read it. . . hmm. . .