SRKindredSpirits

It's interesting to me how you can tell a lot about an individual by their home.  Is it welcoming, cluttered, dirty, orderly, mismatched, displaced, unwelcoming, or chaos? What does your home say about you?  Does it smell clean or is there unpleasant odors?  Is it clean and welcoming to all, or is it dirty, cluttered, and make people feel suffocated? Is it Immaculate with no place to relax or put up your feet? I am not a perfectionist by far but I do try to have a clean home not only for my guests, but for myself; with the beds made, dishes washed, counters and tables cleared, laundry put away, and things put where they belong.  Every item needs its own home. And it needs to be put away and its place. For example I often let my kids bring toys out to play in the living room but each evening the toys are put back into their proper place and my house is picked up and clean, ready for the next day.  Same for school - after we are finished for the day everythin

I think the main reason most people get hung up when it comes to decluttering their homes is because of storage. M any people try to keep too much of the same kinds of things, so they will buy extra hutches, drawers, totes, baskets, etc., to hold all their stuff - they have no limit to the amount of stuff they choose to keep....  Let me explain.   If you have an office, you have paper clutter. Most people have at least one filing cabinet and a desk, but still have too much paper. So, they will buy another filing cabinet and in a few years, still have too much paper clutter.... The same thing with our closets and dressers. We all usually have one of each. We fill them full and overflowing. Then we have clothes in baskets, sitting on chairs, lying on the floor, and our drawers and shelves are running over.... most of us go buy storage containers... we fill them with seasonal clothes, or too big, or too small clothes, or clothes that we used to love, but are out of style, et

Let's just say you have five special dishes from Aunt Susie, five from Great Aunt Betty, and five from Aunt Helen. You have four from Great-Grandma Judith, and two from your next door neighbor. Your mom gave you three, and your sister gave you three more. Now you very seldom use any of those dishes but you can't get rid of them because they are all special, (and what if your sister came to visit and didn't see the dishes she gave you?) , so you have them stacked all together, with all the other dishes in the China hutch - that you seldom use.  But, you are now holding onto 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 27 dishes. Maybe each of the dishes are unique in its own way - it might be a special color, or a special pattern, or maybe it has a special memory of Aunt Suzie serving mashed potatoes in that dish..... but here's the thing -  do you really use, and love, and have special memories of all 27 dishes?  You see, when you have 27 special dishes it's really