Our Decluttering Journey, Part I

Well hello, after my last post about moving... Let's just say, time slipped away. Everything kicked into high gear after little bit of packing here in and there. My husband and I had such clashing schedules most the time, so getting errands done was slow going with just one person doing some of the packing and cleaning. But on the days we were both off, we were on it!

I must admit, I am a little ashamed of how messy our place had become over the years. When we both work so much it felt like we were on this ongoing spring cleaning as I most often referred to it. Throughout the years, I would constantly come home, try to make a vision, start on declutter, take a break....and then everything all went to shit again. Its like I couldn't get it under control. At least no by myself. And again with us working so much, my husband and I were just never in the right mind to clean. We would go home and rest and wind down....Repeat our day the next.

Finding your underlying problem always helps you to start your journey so here is mine...
When I moved up to Washington State, I barely had anything to my name. All that fit in a 4-Door Sedan rental came with me for the roadtrip up. I literally only had a few storage tubs of clothes, a suitcase, and a few knick knacks. My husband and I started with nothing. It was a our first place together...Not even a bed, or couch, or TV, or Dining Table.

Now the way I'm being so vague, we are at no way hoarders at all. We just didn't put things in the right place, as there was no rhyme or reason. It was overwhelming and frustrating at time but it continued on...Up until we learned about our move. Every cleaning project prior didn't have a clear goal. But here it was on a platter, no going back. Learning about our upcoming moved forced us into reality that we needed to get our shit together!!!

And thus, the decluttering began...
THE GREAT DECLUTTERING PURGE OF 2018.

Sorting through everything , one pile at a time really helped us to realize firstly "WTF were we thinking?!!" and secondly, why did we ever keep these things in our lives if its useless. Taking a few tips from the book I read from Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,  we started our decluttering with clothes. Should be easy enough right, since we barely wore half of our wardrobe. We decluttered quite a lot. Some I was afraid to let go because of the "What If" factor but then something in me set in that I should think about the now. What will work for me now. Material items can always be repurchased. Better yet, something better might come along!

We worked our way into the dreaded Paper category. Paper was just one of those hidden nuisance that you don't realize is cluttering up your space. But damn was it everywhere and what for! With technology now a days, everything has a file --so going paperless has always been the best options and my husband and I DO use paperless billing, Yet here I was collecting paper bills from the past. I didn't even know what for! And receipts.... my goodness the receipts. Our first shredding day ended with 3 shred bags...every day that we decluttered our shred became less and less until my husband and I had just one binder of important documents and small accordion file for a little bit of more documents. Going paperless and getting rid of papers in your household is one of the best options you can make yourself if you are on a decluttering journey.

Of course, you can figure out the rest, getting rid of books and magazines we no longer read, getting rid of things that serve no purpose anymore. My husband did such an amazing job getting rid of some of his items and I hope to do a little more myself. Since we began our packing process and started to run out of time, a lot of my items are coming a long for the ride. So my decluttering journey must continue on even though I felt I got rid of a lot. There is always still much work to do.

Its happening....

No use in beating around the bush so,
I'll just drag this out....

For a long time now my husband and I had at the goal of moving. Ideally it was moving into a new place. We've definitely outgrown our First Apartment here in Washington State. But we've also outgrown exploring here. I know there is still hidden gems everywhere but for the most part we've seen a great chunk of it over the past 11 years. YES ELEVEN YEARS!!! Even talking to some of my coworkers that have come and gone, I couldn't believe how long they have lived here and haven't even set foot in Seattle!! That's literally a short drive away.

So fast forward to January, when we got the brief news of my husband's company closing locations down and having small job openings for the mass amount of people who work in that building. We became worried. In January, my husband had just hit his one year mark with the company. What would that mean for a seasoned worker...Would my husband even have a chance to stay with the company? Over the months we got little bits of more information. How the moves will go? When to apply for the lateral move? When you will find out if you got a position?

Fast forward to April, my husband landed two job offers and after much deliberation he accepted the offer for the promotion.

WE ARE MOVING TO AZ!!!

I cannot believe it. I am so proud of him and super excited for our next journey.

This will be our first major move together. When I first moved up here, it was just a rental car packed with my belongings (I didn't have much). And over the years we've accumulated more things than we needed. We will definitely be doing some major cleaning, selling, and donating. This is the only beginning!!!

Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018!

Here we are again, another new year but its no new me (I don't care for that sh*t) NOPE,  its the same me. I still have no idea where all the time went. I vividly remember being at this same state of mind and seeing the same situations at work as last year. I remember feeling a little bit more empowered though and this beginning of the year I feel a little bit more reserved, a little bit less of myself.

2017 could only be summed up by two words: BUSY and EXHAUSTED. I was consistently busy at work, I often described my day as busy, my work schedule? BUSY. Everything was just busy, busy, busy. My mental state? EXHAUSTED. Physically? EXHAUSTED. I was overrun and overworked. I spent more time at my job than enjoying some time away. I was in a never ending cycle of eat, sleep, work, repeat. I felt like I never had any free time. And when I did have free time it was filled with errands and chores. Things that I didn't quite enjoy but things that I just had to get done otherwise it would pile up on my TO DO list. I very seldom got to travel, there wasn't any time to explore new places. Even my husband was busy with his job. It was definitely a year of work.

Last year had a lot of downs but it definitely had a lot of ups. I found myself being able to focus on improving my skills through experience at work. I got to learn new areas, meet new people, and even train new associates a bit more that I've had in awhile. On the days when I would finish errands early, I got enjoy a little down time, catching up on reading some favorite books. And when my husband got his new schedule at work, I found a lot more days where I was able to spend evenings with him, cooking our favorite dishes, watching our favorite shows, and having more movies nights in 😊😊😊 Those little moments always outweighed any bad days I came across.

At the end of the year in 2017, (even though I had a strong sense of it in my mind the past months) I made the ultimate decision that I needed a few changes in my life. Like the people I let into my life, my lifestyle, my career, my well being....pretty much a lot of things in my Life that I would like to see improve. So slowly, I began to implement some changes. I began to declutter and donate more. I began to save and spend less. I began to cook more instead of eating out. Small steps but a big impact that helped me change habits or improve upon them.

With a lot of that being said, 2017 was alright.
                    I've let that year go
and its time to bring on the greatness in 2018!!!

Journey to Simple.

I've always thought of myself of being a very simple person. I never really needed to spend money unless its on food or necessities. I don't find myself in dire need of shopping trip when there's a sale going on or whatever people seem to like to do all on the same day at the same time (😁). I don't need to update my home decor every season (or week or month like some unmentioned people). I'm content with what I have and that's how I have always been, its the person I grew up to be. Things are not as important as people. We should all remember that. But the journey to living a simple life is much more than that. I find myself realizing I've missed several steps along the way. That in reality, I am actually drowning in chaos in my surroundings.

I don't need anything trending in make up, but why do I have such a big collection of makeup. Because I haven't let go. The box that my family sent me through the mail with goodies, the goods are used but the box is just sitting there, piling up along with the rest of the boxes. Whenever I do get actual down time when I'm not working I realize how much material things I have accumulated over the years than what I had started with. When my husband and I first moved into our apartment, we started from nothing. We had this plan to be together and that was it. I brought as many of my things that I could from California to Washington, that fit into a rental car, that barely filled a corner space in our place. Fast forward years later and now I'm fighting to get a space for anything.

So more than ever this year, I have been really learning to let go. The Journey to Simple for me, is letting go. I have to let go of the things that gave me temporary joy. What I learned is that, all the years that my husband was active in the military and was away on duty, I began to fill that void with a temporary fix that came in the form of splurging for things that I want but never needed. After reading a bit of the Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I began to realize what is of importance to me now. And slowly but surely I have been cleaning away different sections in our abode.

Now, most people seem to start with clothes as that is what is suggested in her books, but I have found inspiration in starting where I know I don't have most of my attachments which have been (of course) my makeup/beauty collection a.k.a the items that I had splurged on over the years. You would think this would actually be difficult for me seeing as to how much I have added to my collection over the years but its the easiest because like I mentioned, I do not have attachments simply because I no longer wear much makeup.

Over the next couple of posts I hope to add in a bit of before and after maybe to serve as inspiration for those of you on the same journey with me. Thank you for reading this post if you made it this far:)

Until next time!!!

-J