Somewhere Between Excess and Minimalist

I have a confession:  I am a consumer.  Not in the sense that I need the best of everything or the nicest brands, but I enjoy shopping.  I enjoy purchasing.  I enjoy "stuff."  The problem with being a consumer is that you are never satisfied.  You get in the cycle of thinking: "If I had this, then i'd be happier."  I never thought of this as a problem until I was home for the summer and maternity leave.  That totaled four whole months where I was not working and my mind and time (and money) was free to wonder.    I literally online shopped almost daily.  Daily.  I'd get new makeup in the mail, use it for a couple days, then tuck it away in a drawer and never look at it again.  All the makeup and cloths I bought brought temporary joy, but it didn't make me any happier, prettier, or healthier in the long run.

I want us to live simpler, to not consume so much. This may have hit me as I was (and still am) organizing the kid's playroom.  The amount of toys we have is absolutely ridiculous.  Liam maybe plays with a handful of things in that room and the rest is left untouched.  I'd rather have a select few quality toys for the kids, rather than piles upon piles of junk.  In the process of this "clean out" of the playroom, I started to look at myself a little closer.  Just like Liam and Eva's playroom was filled with junk, my own closet and makeup drawer was filled to the brink with crap.  Looking at my makeup collection alone puts my stomach in knots over how much money I've wasted over the years.  Instead of the joy, which I felt initially when I made these purchases, I was feeling guilty and even a little anxious. 

While I don't necessarily desire to live a complete minimalist life style, I am striving to simplify.  I want to spend less, declutter, and maybe in the process detach a little from life's distractions, like social media and television.  I decided it might be fun to document my attempt to simplify and declutter my family's life and share my experiences.

While I don't have a set plan right now, or really know where I am going with this, I did jump start the whole process by reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (I still have a few pages to go).  To forewarn, I am not a black and white or all or nothing person.  So, given that the book has very specific instructions on how to achieve this goal of decluttering and organization, there is a high chance that this lady will not being following these rules exactly as stated.