Today I want to give you an update on my journey to becoming a minimalist. Wow! You never know just how much stuff you have in your environment until you have pulled everything out of your closed spaces like your drawers, bags, cabinets, garage, closets and storage areas.

This week I took six bags of stuff to the Goodwill and 2 bags too the trash container, all of which was hidden in my closed spaces. This is just phase one of my decluttering process. I will do a second and third purge. My goal is to truly live with what we absolutely need and love.

At least twice a year in my neighborhood, the sanitation department give every home a chance to get rid of clutter, they call it bulk items removal. This is a great way for us to remove big items from my home for free. This year I tackled my garage.

In addition to the six bags of stuff, I removed a dresser out of my son’s room that I no longer had use for. We brought 5 reclining chairs that we used in our theater room in our basement and removed 3 of them because something on them were broken or the faux leather had been peeled off by one of the kids. We cleaned the garage out, throwing away things that were stored there from renovation projects, from things we no longer used inside of our home and who knows what else. My husband and I felt so light. But I am not satisfied because I know we still have stuff that we need to let go.

I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but they are coming. Please be patient. I am not the best at remembering to capture the moment, but I will show you what things look like in my home when I am fully done decluttering and purging.

Lately, I’ve been irritated with stuff. Another one of my goals is to become a smart consumer and limit the amount of stuff I allow to come in my environment. I am noticing more clothes and paper that I must remove from my environment. When we got rid of the dresser in my son’s room it housed my children home school material because I got rid of their home school book shelf. After pulling all the home school materials out, I realized it was too much. I limited the subjects they were taking by combining subjects, but I was still holding on to curriculum they weren’t using, just in case I might need it one day and because of the money I use purchase it. I am letting it all go. I am only focusing on what we need!

I took majority of my kids toys to the Goodwill. I only allowed my daughters to keep their dolls and play kitchen set and shopping cart. My 12-year-old is getting older and enjoy her iPod Touch and my son, I allowed him to keep a couple of cars and building blocks. I am slowly removing their toys, my goal by the third purge is to be a toys free home. Yes, I am going to remove all the toys out of my environment. Before you throw stones at me. Let me explain.

When you give children to many toys or whatever they ask for, they become bored with the toys and doesn’t appreciate the toys that they have. They do not take care of their items like they should, and moms are the ones left to clean up and fuss about putting away their toys. No more, I am done with that. I realize you can waste a lot of money taking your kids to the store, so they can buy toys and the toys end up broken. I am trying to figure out how we are going to start doing our birthdays and Christmas, because you can really consume around those times. Victoria just had her 7th birthday party on April 7, 2018. We had just purged things and toys, and for her birthday more came in. I knew instantly if I did not do something different for all our birthdays, we will end up back were we started.

I want my kids to become baby inventors, engineers and explore their gifts and talents. When I removed their toys and told them to find other creative outlets, this is what my children produced.

1. Blessing, my 5-year-old, found different materials and began to build and create. She took our gloves and cut them up, of which I wasn’t too happy about and started making doll clothes for her dolls.
2. Victoria, my 7-year-old, started learning songs on her own and singing and dancing. She also started making paper doll creations although I had to clean up more, she found joy in making beds, furniture, cell phones, computers and clothes for her paper dolls, all out of paper.
3. I took Faith iPod Touch away from her and told her in order to get it back it must benefit her life by creating an income for herself and she started back drawing and finding creative ways to use her gifts to package products to sell.
4. Wisdom well, he is three, we had more time to explore books that he loves.

God has been dealing with me about my influence as a mom, of which is not an easy job but a rewarding one. We must be aware of how our children are spending their time. It’s easy to let them watch TV, play with already designed toys and grab their electronics to keep themselves entertained while I get things done on my to do list, but it’s much more rewarding for them to discover things about themselves that they would’ve never discovered if I constantly allow them to engage in things that does not allow them to explore their gifts and talents. I am not totally against TV, electronics and toys, there is a place for them and I allow my kids to engage with them, but too much of it is not good for their overall development of which I am learning every day.

Part of me clearing the clutter is so I can spend even more time doing things my family enjoys and less time up keeping stuff.

I would love to hear from you, comment and subscribe to Breakthrough Blog 4 Women. Follow me on my social media links down below. Click here to follow me on Instagram.

Coach Angie!