Love Your Little House: Less stuff in your space

As I said before, I am a borderline hoarder.  Hoarding + Little House = TROUBLE.
I have no trouble getting rid of some things, but there are others that are harder for me to let go of.  But, I’m trying…



Problem: Projects
These are the items that I plan to fix, plan to refurbish, or plan to repurpose.  But for some reason, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  I love to make something new out of something old, but even if I completed all those projects, my house wouldn’t have room to hold them all! 
Solution:  They need to go.  At my garage sale a couple of years ago, I let Carter Station go through our basement and sheds and get rid of some of the unfinished furniture projects I had laying around.  They paid me for my junk, and I knew that my projects would finally get finished and go home with someone who loved them.  I kept the things that I was planning to use in my own home, but after two years, some of those things are still out in the garage, so it’s probably time to invite someone out here again.



Problem: Sentimental Items
My dance trophies and hubbies 4-H trophies are a prime example of sentimental items that take up a TON of room.
Solution: Take a picture.  If we set up a quick photo session and photographed these items, I wouldn’t feel guilty at all about getting rid of them. 
Adam’s art pile just kept growing and growing, so I kept a few of my favorites and took pictures of the rest.  And then, *gasp* threw them away.



Problem: Gifts
Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of things that people gave you as a gift.  Especially if that person is close to you.
Solution: Just do it.  Last summer, close to our five year wedding anniversary, I  got rid of any wedding gifts that had never been opened or used.  Decorative items that weren’t my style were given to someone who would appreciate them or donated.  Kitchen gadgets were given to college aged cousins who might need them.  And my kitchen thanked me.



Problem: Toys
Oh my.  This is a big problem area for us.  There are a million excuses… “But he loves that toy!”  “But Aunt ____ gave it to him.”  “But that was from his first Christmas!”
Solution: Get tough.  I had to enlist my husband’s help with this.  We had sorted toys before but kept ALL the tractors, because Adam loves tractors!  But this time, we had to be more discriminatory.  Bart went through and decided which tractors were worth keeping and which weren’t, and we were able to get rid of a ton.
Involving your children with this sounds nice, but it just hasn’t worked for us.  Maybe Adam is still too young, maybe he’s too selfish, or maybe we haven’t done a good enough job modeling this for him, but he has no interest in giving his toys to other kids.  We’ve had much better luck just doing it when he’s not around.  He has missed some of the toys and asked for them, but we just tell him that they’re lost and suggested something else to take its place.



Problem: Clothing
We get a LOT of hand-me-downs for our boys, thanks to our amazing family.  But at times, that means that the drawers and closets are stuffed TOO full.
And, since I’ve had two boys in 3 years, I have clothing in an array of sizes.  I probably have 6 or 8 different sizes of blue jeans, not to mention the maternity clothes I’ve accumulated.
Solution: Simplify.  For the boys, I tend to get rid of (or pass on to the next little one) any clothes that are hard to match.  Pants with stripes down the side are harder to match than blue jeans or solid colored “soft pants.”  So, they get the boot.  Maybe it’s boring, but I love being able to grab a solid colored shirt and solid colored pants for my boys when we have busy mornings and call it good.
Last summer, I threw away most of Adam’s socks and bought two packs of identical white socks, and one pack of colored “church” socks.  It has made our lives so much easier.  I no longer have to lay out an array of socks in order to find matches.
For my own clothes, it’s a little trickier.  So tricky, in fact, that I haven’t really figured out what to do.  I never know what’s going to fit me on any given morning, so I want to keep an array of sizes handy.  Anyone have any tips for me?

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Do you have a category of “stuff” that is just out of control?  Is it the amount of stuff that is keeping you from loving your little house?  Share your problems and solutions with Squaw Creek on Facebook.


*This post is a part of the Love Your Little House series here at Squaw Creek.  If you have a Little House, please grab a button and share the love!

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