Tchotchke. Now there's a great word. It's fun to say on its own and its fun to fit into a sentence. My house is full of tchotchkes. I am not a pack rat by any means. I don't think you'd even come close to using the word "hoarder" when describing me. But, everywhere I turn in my house I see more and more stuff that is taking up space. Valuable space. Our house is not big, but it works perfectly for us. We make the most of our square footage and live in every square inch. We've been here for 5 years and never had a good clean-out. More and more stuff comes in and nothing seems to leave. We do manage to clean out closets regularly and make sizable donations to local charities. And, about 18 months ago, Jeff and I did a major re-org on our shed and proudly got rid of huge amounts of stuff that we hadn't even looked at in the 4 years prior to it taking up residence in there. That took two full days and the employment of a babysitter to keep Ian entertained and out of our hair. Money well spent.
Now I am getting the bug to do the same inside our 4 walls. I want to go through every drawer, cabinet, closet, shelf, open space and if it hasn't been used in the past year or has no need, then I want to get rid of it. I want to box up all the cookbooks I have sitting in our kitchen; I want to get rid of all these candlesticks we were given as wedding presents and just seem to be collecting dust; I want clear all the pictures and magnets we have on the fridge and give it a clean look; I want to get rid of all these bottles of liquor we will never drink; I want to say bye-bye to this big bag of dum-dum lollipops Ian will never eat because all the blue ones are gone; I want to clean out the pantry and throw out everything that has been there longer than 6 months; I want to toss 3 bottles of vitamins that we can't seem to get Ian to eat; I want to go through the crock that holds all the cooking utensils and clean it out; I want to clean out under the sink all the extra vases that came with flower deliveries and will never be used; I want to tackle the junk drawer! And, this is just in the kitchen.
No room will be safe from me and the trash bag. Anything of value will get donated or make its way to the shed for later evaluation on what to do with it. I want to walk in my house and only be surrounded by items that serve a purpose to me, my husband or the kids.
I have not officially started my clean-out project, but I've definitely given it a lot of thought. I've thought about when I will find huge chunks of time to do this. I've thought about going to Target and getting storage bins. I've thought about how great the house will look when I am done. Unfortunately thinking about it doesn't accomplish squat. I need to stop thinking and start doing. Currently I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the scope of the project. I figured if I write about it, I will somehow be held accountable and will make it happen. I do have a deadline looming ahead, Ian's preschool is holding a huge yard sale to raise money for some additional programs they would like to add. If I can get my butt in gear, then I will have some place very worthy to donate my stuff to for it to get sold. Let my perceived clutter be someone else's treasure.
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