Minimalist Mission

The act of adding another person to our house this summer got me thinking about how much STUFF we have.  Trying to fit all the baby paraphernalia back into our already full house made it even more apparent.  Towards the end of my maternity leave, two things sparked my interest in becoming a moderately minimalist mom.

The first event was getting the chance to finally rid my wardrobe of maternity clothes.  It was a huge project that took a full week of spending about 2-3 hours a day on it.  I ended up not getting rid of jut maternity clothes.  I also purged everything that was old, stained or if I just didn't think I would wear it.  While I don't have a final accounting, my guess is that I removed close to 60% of my wardrobe items.  It was incredibly liberating!

About the same time, I read an article in Montana Parent magazine about how the average American household has 350,000 items in it.

350,000! 

When you think about how everyone one of those items needs to be maintained in some way - washed, folded, organized, repaired, put away, etc. - it is no wonder why we feel like all of our free time is spent taking care of our STUFF.

So, how am I going to accomplish my new minimalism mission?  My plan is tackle one area a week.  Mr. Yost has started taking Stella & Hudson out to his school every Sunday morning for a few hours.  This is now my purge time.  Mine and Vivian's, I should say.  The two areas I've tackled over the last two weeks have been kid's books and stuffed animals.  I took pictures of the stuffed animal project and will post on it later this weekend.