Are you up for the challenge?

Clutter....clutter....clutter! Do you have it in your life? In your mind? In your house?  I have come to loathe the word itself.  Mostly because I realize it is so tied to my spirit and mental attitude towards life.  I firmly believe that physical clutter increases the mental and emotional clutter we have in our lives.  During these first couple of weeks of 2018 I have done a lot of reading and spent time looking around my world for the ways it is is tripping me up. 

According to Psychology Today:

1. Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli (visual, olfactory, tactile), causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren't necessary or important.
2. Clutter distracts us by drawing our attention away from what our focus should be on.
3. Clutter makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally.
4. Clutter constantly signals to our brains that our work is never done.
5. Clutter makes us anxious because we're never sure what it's going to take to get through to the bottom of the pile.
6. Clutter creates feelings of guilt ("I should be more organized") and embarrassment, especially when others unexpectedly drop by our homes or work spaces.
7. Clutter inhibits creativity and productivity by invading the open spaces that allow most people to think, brain storm, and problem solve.
8. Clutter frustrates us by preventing us from locating what we need quickly (e.g. files and paperwork lost in the "pile" or keys swallowed up by the clutter). 

I have always had a sentimental side, which helped me keep every piece of artwork my children made, and hold on to things that I thought would mean something one day. As my life has changed over the last few years, I have had to look at many things that I thought would surely have been family heirlooms and realize that they are now just clutter in the scheme of my journey.  It definitely feels funny to think of ridding myself of items that seemed to mean so much to me at one time. Although, I have been doing that little by little over the last few years, I am making 2018 the year to clean out and clear out.  It will help me in so many ways! So I am picking up the Declutter 2018 Challenge!  Rachel Jones over at Nourishing Minialism has a great Declutter Challenge and I hope you will join me on this journey...not just about getting rid of extra "junk" around the house but also extra "junk' around our hearts and minds!

Join Rachel and declutter 2018 things in 2018!

Christmas Decorating Conundrum

I am conflicted. This year I totally decided that we wouldn't decorate as much as we usually do (so we are down to 5 trees...oh, yeah...)  But, I can't seem to wrap up decorating even what we decided to do!  Also, I have been struck with the worst case of Spring Cleaning/Organizing you can imagine.  Maybe it is the crazy, Spring-like weather we have been having, but just as we are supposed to be pulling out and placing all the traditional Christmas decorations around, I am fighting an urge to purge.  Trust me when I say that Christmas decorating and the deep desire to declutter do not make a happy mix!  Isn't this crazy???? 

Today as I was giving my bathroom a super deep clean I even had the wild thought that maybe I should have a yard sale and get rid of LOTS of things (like maybe the entire attic or storage building???)...and I never think having a yard sale is a good idea. I should mention I rarely think giving the bathroom a deep clean for fun is a good idea either, but that is just what I did!

Is this one of those female life changes no one bothered to tell me about? Is there a medication for it?  What's next..forbidding anyone to eat in my car?  

So, how did you ring in the New Year?

Did you go out and party the night away? Did you have a quiet dinner with someone special? Did you go to bed early and skip the hoopla? We, here at the Southern Somedays house, rang in 2010 in a new way this year! It was the 1st time in many years that we had all 3 children home with us (in the last few years the boys have spent the night with my parents and our daughter has been out of town with a group of her friends). It was also the 1st year that they were all old enough to be excited about New Years, so they wanted to do something special. DH and I decided we would have our 1st Annual Family New Years and it was a blast. We went out to dinner (BBQ - not fancy, but yummy and fun) then we came back and the boys played a game of Risk , then we laided out a little mid-night spread complete with sparkling grape juice. We then danced a bit, and took part in Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve from the WARM comfort of home. It was different but really fun and I think we may have the makings of a new tradition.

Also, of course, the arrival of 2010 brings me to my yearly resolution (yes, I make them and really, really try to keep them). I love the new year and the chance to mentally wipe the slate clean and re-evaluate what/how I am living my life and what I would like to change. Just like our celebration on New Year's Eve was different, my resolution is a bit different in the fact that it isn't different. It is the VERY same resolution I made last year,"to pare down and simplify my life. I want to rid myself mentally and physically of all the clutter that has gathered in the corners of my life." I made this resolution last year and it has served me well. I still have a ways to go, and want to continue the refining and decluttering my mental and spiritual life and also declutter my physical life. So...not original, but I am committing to continuing this process. What was your resolution?

Happy New Year, blogland!