The Confession of a Would-Be Hoarder

So this year I made a few resolutions to myself , and I’ve posted a lot about my new way of eating with the Keto Diet. Another big focus this year is the getting organized – and getting rid of the clutter.

Now most of you know I like to shop. I can’t help but buy multiples of the same shirt I love, in 5 different colors. The amount of yoga pants in my closet and dresser is a bit shameful. Also I get a lot of great stuff from sweepstakes, and the blog, and I have a hard time getting rid of any of it. Usually I have a yard sale, but it’s been a crazy 2 years or so ..and my basement is starting to look like a room of an episode of Hoarders.

(Disclaimer: this is not my house. I am a bit embarrassed to share my basement right now – maybe with the after photo!)

Though like I mentioned this isn’t my house, it is very close to what my basement looks like right now! I am in the process of de-cluttering bedrooms, and all the stuff is going in boxes and totes and to the basement for a yard sale in the Spring (at this point, it may just fund our entire vacation).

A few weeks ago we started with my daughters’ joint bedroom. It’s a lofty type room that takes up the entire attic (honestly I would of been thrilled to have a room so big when I was a kid!) Since its on the 3rd floor I rarely ever went up – I would hang their clothes or put them in a basket and tell them to put them up, and assume that it wasn’t a complete disaster..except I was wrong.

What was I thinking?! 2 young teens – and no one to check up on them? Yikes! The amount of clothes and papers and just straight up mess was a bit appalling. So we started in one corner and we’ve been making our way across the bedroom throwing away garbage, sorting clothing and old toys and such for the yard sale, and helping the girls really figure out what they wanted to keep. It’s amazing how much stuff we collect over the years. All the little knick knacks, and souvenirs, school art and papers, journals and notebooks..and the list goes on.

I reminded them – the more you have, the more you have to clean up. Imagine having a less filled room, nice and organized – and only taking a short amount of time to clean it?
It definitely helped them make decisions on letting some things go..

My biggest surprise – even books! (I didn’t really encourage that, but they want room for more books!)

We aren’t quite done as I still have other household chores, and work to do but it is getting there – and right now in their room alone I would estimate a good 8 to 10 kitchen garbage bags full of GARBAGE that was thrown out, and at least that many boxes and totes filled with clothes, shoes and purses to go in our sale (and you thought I was kidding about it paying for our family vacation!)

I’ve been working on my closet and room as well – and my son’s. I have to admit it’s hard when I am used to accepting items to review, winning things in a sweepstakes, or even shopping online for clothes and coming across a great deal I have to pass up. I would definitely be considered a shopaholic, and though I don’t plan to give that up entirely (I get wayy too many good deals on clothes the kids need for the next season, or next year I save us a good amount of money that way) I am thinking twice, leaving things in my online cart and going back later – and weighing the pros and cons.

As I’ve started going through everything and wondering how my house got in such disarray, I realized a lot of it is emotional. I believe last year I was fighting off a bit of depression and instead of staying on top of things and being pro-active like I had always been, I ignored my problems and threw myself into my work or hobbies or just numbing my mind with things like Netflix. (Netflix is a blessing and a curse I do believe)

I have to focus and make myself keep my head out of the clouds, and even if I don’t deal directly with what had been bothering me – I need to focus on at least my physical life not being in total disarray.

So step one is the bedrooms – and I’ve come up with some great ideas on how to make money from all the extra ‘stuff’ laying around my house which I’ll be sharing about next week.

I can’t wait until I feel back in control of my life – I am getting there one step at a time!