So I’ve been moving right along with the de-cluttering. I actually took a few hours the other day to clean out the three bookbags that I often carry with me to ensure that I never miss an opportunity to work on any of the fifteen projects I have going should the spirit move me to do so when I am in transit. I successfully whittled their contents down to where it is contained in one tidy little bag. My shoulder thanks me.

From these:

To this:

It has been a rough week and I have to admit that I didn’t spend much time on decluttering due to some personal things that were happening. I did manage to work with my daughter on some of her clutter and that was a major chore. She’s five and already she consistently finds ways to avoid working on her room. What we found during the course of this journey into the world of the pre-schooler was that we have way too close a relationship with McDonalds and Burger King. I found an entire box full of those silly little toys that they like to put into their kid’s meals to entice children to eat their chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers. Check out this picture:

This tells me that we really need to cut back on the takeout and get her focused on some other things. Granted, it’s not like this is a week’s worth of toys, but still, I really don’t want her collection to grow much past what it already is. She did manage to let go of an entire bag full of toys that she doesn’t want anymore. I was proud of her for being willing to let go of it. At least she’s on the right track.

While I continue to deal with some emotional clutter, it became increasingly evident to me this week that holding onto things is not a good substitute for growing solid relationships with the people you love. I lost my grandfather this week and he was someone whom I loved very much. I was looking around his house the other day and noticing that he didn’t have what I would call a great deal of clutter. He lived very simply and he only seemed to keep things that were functional or had real sentimental value to him. His possessions did not amount to much, but if you knew him, you could tell that he was indeed a wealthy man. Wealthy in a sense that he knew who he was and was comfortable with being that person consistently and without apology. He was a great man and I could take lots of lessons from the way he lived his life. As I continue the process of dis-entrenching myself from this lifestyle I’ve become reluctantly accustomed to, I will keep this in the back of my mind. I’ve always known and believed that the stuff isn’t what’s important, so the sooner I can adhere to my own beliefs, the sooner I will reach my goal of being clutter-free.

Until next time…

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