Making peace with the clutter

I am not a sentimental person, really. Getting rid of stuff is pretty easy for me, most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I have kept a few things around just because they came from someone special, or remind me of something that matters. But I do not have collections of knicknacks. I prefer a bare surface to almost anything else. I've got that Spartan spirit! Wooo!

(Please shut up about the giant basket of lip products, the heap of nail products, and the closet full of shoes. This has nothing to do with that. Wipe that smirk off your face.)

A while back, frustrated with the state of our house, I decided to get down to business on the clutter front. Because I hate it anyway, and it was making life a hassle, and making the house feel oppressively crammed with stuff, to me.

I got rid of a lot. If I could come up with any excuse to sell, donate, give away or throw away the item in my hand, it went out the door. I became a big fan of eBay, and Freecycle, and the local thrift store.

Today I drove a carload of stuff to the thrift store, came home, took a look around, and thought, "I don't know that I can get rid of anything else around here, without getting rid of family members, first."

It's an odd feeling.

We still have plenty of books, but let me tell you they are good books. We have plenty of musical gear and CDs, and two talented musicians in the house. We have lots of legos, and every game system known to man, and there's little you can do to make those look tidy. And the kids each have their collections of Stuff. Well, not Son #1, so much. He is not a keeper. But the rest of them do.

But aside from that, there really isn't much here that we don't need, or use, or love, or appreciate somehow on a regular basis.

I'm not sure what to do with that. I mean...decluttering had become a bit of a crusade for me. And now, well, even though the house still has more stuff in it than makes me feel comfortable, I think I have done enough. Just because I like flat, smooth surfaces doesn't mean the entire family has to live like that.

So, I guess, at this point I can move on to what I had always said I would do, once the clutter was under control: keep a clean house, and write more, and enjoy the space.

Having a time wrapping my head around that.