Savoring Summer Series: Week 5
Loving your nest
Summer is a great time to pour a heapin’ helpin’ of love into your home in preparation for the seasons to come. It’s hard to believe that fall, winter and February are right around the corner when we’re in the middle of July. Most of us want to be outside as much as we can while the weather is so nice. Just a little effort, though, can go a long way towards creating the space you'll love to be in for the darker seasons to come. This week’s post is on decluttering, what to do with the extras, and going easy on house projects so you can get back to the beach in no time.
Declutter for greater ease
Maybe because we're all at home at once in the summer I find our house feeling a little tighter than usual. There's so much in and out of doors: flip flops and hiking shoes, camp bags, shells and rocks, balls of all kinds, and you can imagine it all, I know. My kids often hear me say, “we need to get rid of half of everything in our house!” This is especially brought on when I start hearing “I’m bored. I have nothing to play with.” Decluttering a little each week, a room at a time, or over a whole weekend can bring greater ease to the entire household.
Decluttering also can:
bring a breath of fresh air and revitalized energy to any space
show us how much abundance we already have and bring new creative ideas in
help us refine our values and intentions for our stuff and spaces
bring awareness to items that no longer work and/or serve our environment or needs
Decluttering with children
My creative daughter sees beauty in everything from a treasured birthday card, collected chestnuts, and bits of yarn "projects", to a candy wrapper from Halloween. The problem comes from the artful way she displays these items all in full view or shoved into tiny nooks and crannies. It makes her virgo mama smile and cringe all at the same time. Over time she becomes distracted and overwhelmed when she tries to clean up her room.
Where to begin? This is when we do a seasonal sweep, declutter, and re-organize. I start by saying “everything off the shelves and onto the rug.” There is a moment of panic on her face until she hears me say that we will not get rid of anything she isn’t ready to get rid of (besides bits of straight up garbage that she won’t miss). She gets a paper grocery sack and I get a few more baskets and we pick each item up and decide where it goes.
The process takes less time than either of us imagine. I have to redirect her a few times because she has rediscovered something she hasn’t seen in a long while. At the end we have a pile of items to give away to cousins and friends, a Goodwill pile, a garbage pile, and some organized cleaned up shelves. She now knows where things go, what she has, where that one necklace or doll shoe is, and what she has outgrown. It feels good to go down memory lane, to give things away and let go, and to create a little space for new ideas and things to come into her life. Afterward, she has an easier time picking up her room and I catch her spending more time in there. She always tells me her room feels better.
This is the process you want to go through in as many places as you can over the summer so you can feel better too. For me it’s sometimes easier to begin in a kids’ room and then move onto a more challenging one like my own creative space. Over time my hope is that my kids will be able to sense when it’s time to do this for themselves because they can feel the positive effects of decluttering.
Garage sales and rainy day boxes
After all this great decluttering you may have quite a collection of things you are ready to part with. That’s wonderful. As I mentioned above you can give them away to friends and family or to a thrift shop like the Goodwill. Another idea is to host a good old fashioned garage sale with your kids. Heck, they could even run it themselves and keep the money they earn. You could oversee this entrepreneurial endeavor and help put the signs out but for kids 10 and up this could be a great solo summer project. Getting to know your community, watching another kid love the toy you are done playing with, and making a buck to spend on something new—it's a win, win, win.
Another idea, that works well for younger kids, is to create a rainy day box with puzzles, games, toys, art and craft supplies and books that are no longer played with but the family isn’t ready to get rid of. You can put them in a closet or other storage space for a future winter day. Or for the times when you need to pull something out of your mama hat— when no one can find anything to do or you have an important call or everyone is home sick with a cold. Suddenly all those long forgotten items seem new, nostalgic and fun for a day of play. Especially when everything has to go back in at the end of play and disappears again. The kids could decorate the box to make it more special.
Just pick one
Summer often has a lot of lists attached to it. One of the most common is the home improvement list. The hardware and garden stores are packed this time of year. Besides the big projects your family may take on together there are also the ones you have your heart set on getting done while the kids play outside and you make another round of snacks. On the list could be repaint the bathroom, switch the living room and dining room spaces, create an art corner, clean out the basement, or redo a kid’s bedroom. Even if this list isn’t actually written down it lives inside your head, taking up precious mental real estate and energy.
This summer, try prioritizing just one of these great ideas. Choosing one and taking small steps to complete it will calm the overwhelm you may feel staring at the larger list of things you plan to get to. Looking at your list (figurative or real) which one is calling to you? Which one sounds fun to begin? Which one feels energetically lighter in your body? Choose that one please. Break it down into bite sized pieces
Now, on a new piece of paper, begin breaking that project down into small steps. Look at each small step and see if you can break it down even further. This is a tool I use again and again with my coaching clients. The idea is to break down the steps so small that you slip right by the fear center in your brain that may bring up procrastination, overwhelm, and resistance. This process allows you to feel success as you complete the steps and gain momentum to carry you through the project. And, it’s fun! In mine and my clients’ experience there is a “lightening up” and playfulness that comes to the task. Who knows where it will lead. Begin small and get carried away in the process.
How will you feather your nest?
I would love to hear how you breathe fresh air into your home this summer with a little decluttering and just one project at a time. There’s no better time to involve the kids than in helping to clear out the old to make way for new inspiration to come in through those wide open doors and windows. Let the sun shine in! And, let me know how it goes in the comments below.