Day #3 -- First Day of Work

    I decided last night to stop playing around with this whole mess of organizing and decluttering.  Today a friend came over and looked at the house with me, room by room, and gave me her thoughts on where she thinks the problem areas really are, and where I should start. She and her visit today was such a blessing.  Her kids played with mine and she said, "Don't be so hard on yourself. Your house really isn't that bad!"  It felt so great to hear that and as I looked around I realized that she is right, it's not as bad as I feel like it is sometimes.  Instead of focusing on all the projects we HAVE finished here, I get focused on what is left to be done.
     We also shared our vulnerabilities and how neither of us minds going to a friend's messy house but we don't want to be the one whose house is messy when company comes over.  Isn't it amazing that God created women to be the mothering, forgiving, loving, nurturing, intuitive, empathetic sex, yet we don't always portray that to other women and we rarely expect that from women.  I mean, if a man comes over and sees my messy house I will probably say "excuse the mess" or something cliche, but if it's a woman I get sweaty, nervous, embarrassed, and just totally freaked out.  That is the time that those negative voices slip in and start whispering what a bad housekeeper I am, and therefore a bad mother, a bad wife, a bad hostess, a bad friend, a bad daughter, and just a bad 'everything'; AND what is worse is ....SHE knows it now because she just saw what lives under your couch - you lazy slob!
     What we should expect from our lady friends is that the truth is they understand because they have the same beings living under their couches, and even more, they didn't actually see it. What they did see was the ONE thing you managed to clean before they got there (maybe you smeared off your kids' sticky urine lines down the toilet and into the floor, using a baby wipe) and they begin to hear all those voices that you heard earlier; how they are a lazy slob and should clean like you do.  WOW - if we could get all our voices together we would be amazed at how great a job we are all actually doing, and how every woman wants to be like someone else, who is in fact, just like them already.
     After she left, I felt so refreshed and energized and understood.  A hundred pounds was lifted off of me and I finally decided to DO IT ALL just because I can!  I am going to KonMari my house like the book says (in categories) but I'm also going to work on organizing my house by room (like my friend says).  Her guidance was finish the Laundry Room and Downstairs Bathroom this week, mainly because they are almost done.  So that is my goal for the rest of the week - I have FIVE DAYS to finish organizing those two rooms.  In the meanwhile, I will KonMari all my clothes.
     So, I had AWANA tonight and couldn't finish but at least I got started.  I got all of my clothes, shoes, coats, accessories, and purses into the living room in a huge pile on the couch.  I'll sort it tomorrow but I have begun.  I can not say that I have always been a minimalist but I can definitely claim to have almost always been a purist, a recycler, a reuser, a conservationist, and a pretty much guilty consumer of excess.  What I mean is I am innately drawn to things that are natural, practical, can be used for multiple things, and I have always been grossed out by excess (except for chocolate ice cream).  I am almost embarrassed to say I watch all of the movie Captain Fantastic (the language is beyond atrocious) but I actually watched it twice because Viggo Mortenson plays "me" - he plays the very extreme side of how I feel about kids, education, and living life.  If you see it you'll think "wow, I never saw her that way" but remember I said he plays the pretty extreme side of what my general beliefs are.  Let me say that our main differences are that he is not a Christian, and his political views are a little warped.  I love where the movie ended and he raised a family that realized the sickness of gluttony and how to push yourself to be better.
     In the movie, the kids have never visited a city before and they go inside a bank and are horrified at the overweight people (who to you and I are average weight).  They can't stop looking and they ask him "are they sick??" It's a funny part of the movie but there it made me think.  Today as I piled my stuff onto my couch I felt like those kids did when they were shocked.  This pile makes me sick.  I am very blessed to have all this stuff but it doesn't feel like a healthy blessing of goods here - it looks like a gluttonous excess of junk and it's no wonder that I am feeling so stressed here.

     Our couch is huge. That laise on the right side of this pic is like a twin bed - it holds me and Will next to each other and then like three other people down the left side.  I feel so much lighter just having this pile out of my closet.  I will sleep better with the fresher air in my bedroom.  Tomorrow I will show you what this pile changed into.  Will is into this now and he wants to go next.  The kiddos are willing to do it too so look out Delta -- we are about to clothe some families :).  Someone said hold a yard sale but I think I can lose some of my guilt by just passing it along.  Anybody, just anybody .... zoom in on this picture and tell me if you can spot ONE thing you have seen me wear - EVER.  I bet you can't find 5 pieces.  Watch this video.  This lady starts crying and says how grateful she feels when she sees the pile of "stuff".  I love this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv4pBhN93L0