I really don't think I'm a pack rat. My family moved around quite a bit when I was young, so I got used to packing and getting rid of things. Thinking it over, there are few things amazingly precious to me. However, I am cheap, and I don't enjoy shopping, so I like to hold onto things we "might need". That way madness lies, so I work hard to get rid of items that haven't been used in a long while even when part of my brain is whispering, "We might use that someday..."
Yesterday I tackled bookshelves, which are my nemesis. I love books. My parents love books. I grew up in houses full of books. My parents' home has bookcases everywhere, with books neatly arranged by author, genre, etc. Kevin and I have many bookcases, but not nearly as many as parents do.
Books are hard to part with! They individually are usually small, so it is easy to think -- well, this won't take much room. Yesterday I had the emotional energy to go through 2 bookcases and I did get rid of probably 50+ books, and I am proud of myself. One thing I realized is that some very thin kids' books just get lost in the shuffle. If I can't find them when I need them, why bother? Furthermore, we live close to a library and visit if often, so usually I can just look up a particular topic (like artists, or medical pioneers, or astronauts) and borrow books instead of hanging onto a few vague volumes on those subjects.
This bookshelf is still a work in progress, but yes -- there is empty space! One huge breakthrough is that I finally just TOSSED an entire set of children's encyclopedias. I bought them 8 or 9 years ago for $5 and we just never used them. They were too simple to be of much value. But I kept thinking, "Oh, maybe someday..." Well, they took up a lot of space so I just ditched them. And I'm proud of myself.
And in the middle of decluttering, I need to keep maintaining certain areas of the home. This is the kitchen. The kitchen is a CONSTANT battle. Our house is huge -- 3500 square feet in the official living space, plus a huge basement. The kitchen is not especially fancy, nor is it amazingly big for the size of the house. Don't get me wrong, it is very nice. But we prepare food for 10 people in this kitchen, and most of us are at home all day every day. It doesn't take long for the counters to become completely cluttered with items, and I feel like I am at WAR much of the time with dirty dishes, pans, fruit, doughnut boxes, etc. that encroach on valuable counter space. We do have a pretty good system at night, as the children wash all pans and bowls and finish loading the dishwasher with whatever remnants weren't put in the dishwasher after meals, leaving relatively few dirty items on the counter. So usually at bedtime, the kitchen looks decent.
What is my point? Hmmm...what IS my point? I guess my point is that in house cleaning, sometimes you just have to keep trucking away. I get frustrated at times that the kitchen isn't as nice as I would like. BUT it is far better than if I just ignored it completely. When I have a few spare minutes, I will wipe up crumbs and put away random items that belong in bathrooms, and it helps. Our kitchen never degenerates into a total disaster. And I'm proud of that :-).
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