🎶 Let it go, let it goooo 🎶

The year of our Lord, two thousand and twenty-five, will forever be known as the year of The Great Declutter, at least by the future therapist of my children.

They’ll remember it as somewhere between the spiritual fervor of The Great Awakening and the devastation of The Great Depression.

After living abroad with no more than a week’s worth of clothing and very little in the way of toys (Paper! Pencils! Colored, if you’re lucky) for seven months, coming back to our home gave me hives. So. Much. Stuff.

For those of you who survived Marie Kondo, you know that the bar of, "Does this bring you joy?" is quite low. And vague.

EVERYTHING BRINGS CHILDREN JOY.

And let’s call it what it is: temporary happiness, often more about the opening and anticipation, rather than the object. Which is why boxes and tissue paper continue to remain such a dependable gift.

That standard is therefore out in our home. Only Jesus brings you lasting joy. And He doesn’t take up any space at all. #winning

My next line of approach, "Have you used this in the last 7 months?" was circumvented by one of the children with above-average intelligence.

“We haven't used any of it in the last 7 months. We’ve been gone.”

Fine.

Have you thought of it in the last 7 months? …

The fun of parenting multiple children is that you get to see pieces of yourself expressed and exaggerated. One of my girls has my “emotional attachment” tendencies - such memories, such good times, such possibility for future use! Maybe the object will feel sad and rejected.

We have not watched Toy Story yet for this reason.

Another of my girls has my “burn it all down or send it to Goodwill” attitude. She is practical, ruthless, and light on sentimentality. Birthday cards get read and then tossed. Minimalism is her happy place.

To the point that she refused to sell one of her purses to her younger sister, even though she was already getting rid of it. Anyone in the world could buy it at the garage sale, EXCEPT little sister, because then it would still be in our house. The grace is strong in that one….

Eventually, we culled a decent pile of clothes, books, toys, more books, baby items (5 is a great number on which to end. You hear that, Jesus?), and furniture. I only had to put back 20% of it after the children attempted reconnaissance efforts to save it.

I’m telling you, the therapists are going to have a field day.

During this process, we also took down a wall. How in the world does that help with decluttering, you ask?

If it happens to be the wall for a room where you hide the mess when people come over, then suddenly, there is nowhere to hide things.

Also, it means you might still like living in your house. We came back from all those months of house-hopping, and I walked through my front door and hated my home. Derided my design choices. Was suffocated by all the things tucked into closets and corners and on shelves.

After researching real estate and realizing the current market + interest rate made for a hilarious joke of a mortgage, we had to find a way to make the best of it.

Down came the wall. But not until we did this to it. Out went the stuff. Up went the garage sale signs.

In came a sense of space, of openness, of time back, and deep breaths.

And probably a little happiness.

By clearing out just a fraction of what is in the home, we’re spending less time on cleaning, less time caring for stuff, and more time on relationships, memory making, and fun. That wise God-Son was onto something when he said, “Store up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy.”

That’s the good stuff. That’s where the joy is.

Joke’s on me, though. The morning after we did a multi-family garage sale, the kids woke up and asked when we could do it again. Turns out, making money is way more fun than holding onto things you don’t actually use.

In case you’re also looking to cause some low-level detachment trauma for the people you live with, here are some questions to help guide decluttering:

• Could someone else use it more often and get greater delight?

• Have we touched this, needed this, or even thought of it in the last 6 months?

• Are there other ways we could enjoy something similar: a library for books, toy swapping or playdates with friends to enjoy different toys?

• Before we buy, is there something already in the house we need to use up or that could serve the purpose nearly as well?

And if you do a garage sale: the real money is made in the baked goods. Your kids will thank me.

Happy decluttering!

Jo x