The Joy of Dejunking

The Junk!

I have a confession to make. I may not be the housekeeper that I used to be.  Obviously I have had all kinds of help in this...I can think of 5 reasons.  I like to consider it a personal strength that I can overlook the mess and deal with the nitty gritty of parenting but at the end of the day parenting does consist of teaching how to organize and pick up after yourself.   I get that, even if it is not as often as I should anymore.  The messes left everywhere DO bother me, it's just that at times it is such an emotional battle to decide if I should just clean up after everyone and save the fight or if I should face the bull in the horns and get everyone involved in picking up after themselves.  Usually after I have fought this battle in my head I really would rather ignore it and move on to other issues.
So once again I am revisiting the goal of doing a better job of being consistent and riding kids' backs until the house is presentable on a daily basis.  To kick things off I started with the Great Christmas Put-Away and turned it into a Christmas and whole house dejunkathon.  It felt like an episode of "Hoarders" with my huge black trash bags stuffed to capacity. Trash bags with donations. Trash bags with garbage.  The kids were cheering me on with comments like "Don't get too close to mom, she'll throw you away!!" I thought I was being so original until I saw on Twitter all of the tweets about dejunking and New Year's resolutions to organize your home.  So much for individual thinking.  I decided there is a direct correlation between all of those Christmas decorations staring back at me for a month and then right after the presents are opened they begin to close in on me like a trash compactor.  The only thing I can think about is making it all go away...fast!
After a huge drop off at Deseret Industries and filling every empty garbage can in the neighborhood I am well on my way to having the upstairs done and then I will try to wrap my brain around the basement.  I cannot describe the relief that comes with getting rid of "stuff"!  You really should try this!