My house is not particularly big as American houses go. I have around 1,800 square feet: three rooms and two bathrooms. We have some storage space but not much, this house was built in 1953 and I think people had less stuff to store. Today this house is brimming with stuff. It's an assault on the senses. There are toys everywhere. I am constantly tripping, slipping, kicking and stepping on toys.
One bedroom is Logan's office (we also store a piano and some random stuff in there). The other two bedrooms are places we sleep. I used to have many toys in the kids' room but decided it created a distracting sleep environment and moved all the toys into the living/eating room/kitchen area. It is a total disaster. I have packed boxes of toys and stored them outside. I thought we would do the cycling of toys. I cycled some toys in and some toys out ONCE in the past six months. We are literally drowning in toys and stuff in this house. I am not prepared to sell or get rid of anything (pack rat and totally unable to part with things). But, I am starting to feel like I am part of the problem. Every time I buy a toy I throw away or recycle a ton of cardboard and plastic. I am literally filling a landfill every time I buy something new. Stuff comes with more packaging than product. At the end of the month, my credit card bill is something I have to think about because I needed to buy more stuff that is suffocating my household. (Don't worry, I am not overspending, but, I am spending money on things we don't necessarily need and we could save instead.) How much stuff do I need before I am happy? I thought the more toys they had, the more occupied my kids would be throughout the day. I was totally wrong. Other than a few select toys (bicycle, tricycle, the toy kitchen, a few other items) toys are awesome for a week and then forgotten. They become something thrown around the house, something I have to pick up and put away on a daily basis. I can't keep my house clean because I can't keep up with all the stuff laying everywhere. I can't wait to get rid of all the toys and box them away. I want to see my floor again. I want to be able to sweep my floor without having to pick up stuff for an hour first. I am starting to hate stuff. The more stuff I own, the more stuff I want, the more money I spend, the more I have to work and then I want the latest and greatest new stuff and pretty soon I am drowning in stuff and debt and also polluting the world with plastic that isn't biodegradable and it's a vicious cycle I can't leave. I am hoping Israel will be a cleansing of sorts. A place where I will be living rather sparsely. I won't have most of my stuff and I am going to live for six months without all of my shoes or clothes or books or kitchen gadgets. I crave this Spartan lifestyle. I want empty bookshelves, bare floors, a space with no clutter. I want to spend this time cleansing my soul on all levels. This crazy American consumerist lifestyle where I feel the need to own the greatest and latest and newest is preventing me from living with freedom where money does not dictate my happiness.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet the Blogger!
I'm a mom. A writer. A lover of good fantasy. A proponent of nursing when possible. A birth advocate. I am absolutely horrible at keeping my house clean or the dishes washed or the laundry done. I strongly believe in women having a positive birth. When we start to respect women's rights to birth the way they want, we can start to treat women as equal people in this world. Archives
February 2016
Sites I Value
http://blog.ican-online.org/ |