I am not sure how it happens, but several times per year items in my house move themselves to new locations that they do not belong. No matter how many times I put them away, they wander back off and crowd my spaces.
I noticed in this picture above, that the mantle was not only dusty but many things were sitting up there and it must be when I am asleep that they all have a party and move themselves around because I am sure that it is not me.
We all know that didn't happen, but I am once again surface cleaning and removing objects that feel like clutter.
Now the mantle is no longer cluttered but the drawers and totes that I have stacked to go through still await me. There were ducks and a quail on this mantle, will I miss them?
I love old things from the past but I realize that I cannot keep it all. I must have some kind of balance, if it is too cluttered I am overwhelmed, and if I clear too much I miss the whimsy, and items that remind me of long ago.
Do any of you have this problem? Is it just me?
You can tell the bunnies are worried, they wonder if they are going to move again. Actually I have decided to give them their own shelf in this bedroom so that they can stretch out a bit. I do not consider them clutter, they are part of the family so they can stay.
I did clutter up one area this past week, I added a quilt to the back of our headboard after one of the ladies in the forum mentioned to not have the headboard against an outside wall when it is cold. This is a antique metal bedframe and headboard and since it is on an outside wall we put a quilt over the headboard and between the quilt and our sleeping caps it does feel warmer. Thank goodness we had a warm up today so the house was able to recover some heat.
We are doing good and have only ran the heater for an hour in the morning and an hour in early evening and then the electric blankets along with very warm pajamas. This is the least amount of kilowatt hours we have ever used during cold weather.
For our conservation of water I am using the washstand for bathing and grooming as they did long ago before running water. I am actually getting much better at this and enjoy the routine.
The enamel object on the right is called a spittoon. Several years ago we found that washbowls and spittoons are handy to use in bedrooms when there is only one bathroom and everyone needs to wash up, brush their teeth, and get dressed. Each person can have their own area to do these things and leave the bathroom free for those that need to use the bathroom or take a full shower. Later when there is no longer a rush the bowls can be cleaned.
In the past they kept a slop pail for pouring the dirty water and kept some clean water left over for cleaning the washbowls etc. They would often use a drop of turpentine for cleaning. I go over mine with alcohol after washing it out.
I do not care if people think me strange for this is my home and I do what makes sense to be able to pay our bills and not have any debt for today having debt is a serious problem for many. We must be strong and not try to fit in with everyone else or we end up in debt as they are.
We are not uncomfortable living like this, I think that it is an adventure. :)
There are many ways to clean and sanitize and the old way might require boiling. It is better to learn than not know should things get more serious.
I have added extra quilts to all of the beds quilts should someone come for a visit.
I know that I have talked many times about decluttering but I still have too many clutter items around because I still have things stored in totes, the drawers are too full, and many items have no place to live so I am once again decluttering.
I had to think hard and long of what to do to get our home less cluttered. I feel that the problem for me, is that I love the old items and the old way of doing things but I still have items from all the eras that I have lived. I have keepsakes from my grandmother, my mother, now Charles mother and other family members. Charles has many things of his father and also my father. They had many things from all the eras they lived and the modern items seem to be the worst of the clutter.
It is not big items, it is the small clutter that just will not go away or there is no room to keep these items so something has to go to be able to fit into our space.
Paper clutter keeps coming back more and more and I think that this is because I need a better routine for this. In my defense we have been completely overwhelmed with paper clutter after our parents deaths and we finally did get through this after many years of working on this issue.
These are just life situations that happens, none of our lives are completely steady all the time and we do have to go through challenges. We just do not need to give up.
I do feel that there is an unrealistic expectation that someone set that makes people think that our homes are suppose to be perfect all the time. You show me someone's clean house and I say there is a good chance their "Stuff" is somewhere around in a hiding place. There is nothing wrong without that maybe it is time to be more real about things.
In the past people were not as conscience about a cluttered messy house, or at least the people that I knew were not. I feel that we keep getting less and less real or honest about things.
Our house does not have a lot of storage, we do not have a garage, we do not have a coat closet in our living room. We have used our utility closet off the dining room to make a pantry so we do not have a place for the vacuum, broom, utility things. Our bedroom closets are small and we do have a closet in our hallway for linens and a small cabinet for toiletries across from the bathroom
My Granny N lived with us in the mid1960s. We lived in a small farmhouse and functional was what was important. I married and moved away shortly after this picture was taken and started my own homemaking. I started off with the bare basics but good lessons from my past.
I know that people talk a lot about decluttering and the Swedish death cleaning when we get older and not leaving all of this for our family to have to go through when we are gone. I do not want to leave a burden because we know too well what it is like. But, I am understanding more and more why it is not easy for people to leave a tidy home with few things by the time they pass away. Many people, including ourselves cannot afford to just go out and buy something when we need it and then discard it. If we already have it and it is an item that we only use once a year, we still need that item so we can use it that once a year. To me this is not an excuse but sensible.
Some people feel good about having things that have no real purpose but have happy memories.
I have been using our table to sort through things so I have not dressed it back for eating. I love using table cloths, placemats and napkins, that was common in my past so this is just what I am used to.
After much thought about all of this, I feel that a good part of clutter today is because there is constantly new things being made, and so many constant changing. This is commerce and they want us to keep buying.
Things changed during my grandparents lives but when they were older they still had the basic things they had all along. I cannot say the same for me and now I wish I had kept many things that I discarded for poorly made items.
All generations have their own memories, this means no one is wrong the way they do things. It also makes it fun when we go to another persons house and experience the way they do things. We should not all be the same, nor ever judge another because we are all on our own life journey.
My question for the forum from this post is do you have any tips of how you organize your small clutter items?
Have you somehow found a way to have the perfectly kept home?
Do you have your own issues with clutter?
Do you have a special place to tuck away those extras?
You also can talk about any topic you would like to bring up if you have something you would like to know about.
Grandma Donna
