Simplifying our Lives – Starting Line: Father’s Day 2008

It all started when Darling Daughter and I began working on redecorating her room.  As we’ve cleaned out her room, closets, and everything else, we moved all the excess into other areas of the house in order to make her room a workable space.  We have a tendency to use our entire house for storage, and then live among the items we’ve stored, which is not very comfortable.

So today (after church), even though its Father’s Day I’ll be trying to find a place for all the things that are now in my living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and yes, even in Son’s room.  It leaves me wondering how so much STUFF could have been in her room?  Now that it’s been let out of the closet it has grown exponentially!

We made a trip down to the local mega store and bought a stack of those plastic tubs to store some of the excess.  Do you remember the final scene in “Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark”?  Well, our garage is beginning to look like that warehouse with all those boxes piled on top of each other….and they are all those opaque plastic tubs so to find out what’s in each one you have to actually open it and look inside….yeah, I know….that was poor planning.

So today I’m adding to the stacks and will feel very good about myself, our lives, and our home once I get it all cleaned up.  Whew!  At least Darling Daughter is happy in her new blue and green room….so different from the cutesy pink and blue hearts that were there before.  The colors Dear Daughter chose are cool and refreshing…sort of ocean colors….and it feels so clean in there…perhaps that’s just because of the contrast with the rest of the house?  Hmmm……maybe….maybe.

But today is about more than cleaning up a mess that we made.  It’s about minimizing the clutter, simplifying our lives, and being comfortable in our home.  There are 3 or 4 of those big plastic tubs by the front door that are filled with usable items that we don’t want or need.  It keeps running through my mind how important each of those purchases seemed when they were made, but now they seem so wasteful….A look at our spending habits may be next on our road to the simple life.

And finally, our diets….we have so many changes to make here.  Some days I wonder if we don’t spend more on food and eating out than we do on housing and utilities each month….But that wouldn’t be so bad if the quality of the food we’re taking in was better.  We’re making radical changes in our diets…Mike should never have watched that program on BBC America in which the dietitian comes and overhauls a family’s diet.  I’m SO inspired to make healthy changes!

Even our schedules need to be pared down to a manageable level…with two kids in scouts, band, church youth group, etc., we are constantly on the go.  So often we start the day tired and stressed.  There has to be a better way.

So we’re marking Father’s Day 2008 as the starting line for our new simpler, cleaner, healthier lifestyle.  Why don’t you come along for the ride with us?  Maybe your closets are as overflowing as ours.  Maybe your diet and exercise habits are in need of a makeover?  I think most Americans deal with these issues, but we may be the king and queen of the messies.  So we’ve decided to abdicate the throne and live more simply.

As my last official act as Queen of the messies, I decree that you have the power to simplify your life and make it better.

Let’s get started!