BRIGHTON, Mich. – Piles of paper on the kitchen counter, closets stuffed full of clothes you never wear, a basement full of who knows what.
We all have spots in our home that attract clutter and, frankly, drive us crazy.
But when Brighton mother of three Mona Shand decided to tackle the problem head-on, she never imagined the impact it would have on her family.
"For years, I just thought I needed to be more organized. I needed more of a system, more bins, more ways to organize my stuff," Shand said. "And one day, I looked around and I thought, 'You know what? The problem is not that I'm not organized enough. It's that we just have too much stuff.'"
It was a turning point. She decided it was time for a change.
"I started to think about what message that was sending to my kids," Shand said. "If we spend all our time accumulating, maintaining, cleaning, moving, occupying ourselves with stuff -- what does that tell them? You know it doesn't leave time for the things that are really meaningful."
Shand started by stopping the flow of stuff into their home with a self-imposed "shopping moratorium." That meant not buying anything that wasn't essential.
"My kids did not need any more clothes. I did not need any more clothes. We didn't need any more toys. Random gadgets, the smoothie maker you throw into your cart at Target," Shand said. "I wasn't controlling what I was bringing into the house, and that's a big piece of it."
When it came to decluttering, Shand was inspired by something she saw on Facebook.
"March 1, I started a little project called '40 Days and 40 Bags.' It was a Lenten decluttering effort," explained Shand.
The idea is to declutter one bag of stuff from your home for each of the 40 days of Lent. Shand created a Facebook group and invited her friends and their friends to join in.
"I realized that if I didn't have anybody keeping me accountable, it was just going to stay a great idea and not actually be something that I did," Shand said. "Eventually we ended up with about 200 people in the group. Some as close as my neighbors, some as far as Australia. So it really seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people."
In her own home, she started tackling the clutter by focusing on one area at a time.
The easiest room?
"I would say the kitchen. I don't think we have as many emotional attachments to things like dishes, knives, silverware. So that was pretty easy for me to get through. Tupperware, if it didn't have a lid that matches, it was gone."
The impact was immediate. Cupboards were no longer overflowing, and there were fewer dishes to wash.
"If my kids have access to 20 water bottles, they're going to keep taking another one every time they need one," Shand said. "If they just have one water bottle, then they're going to have to wash it out, and fill it up again. And it just saves a lot of work."
Next came her closet and her kids' closets.
"I had clothes from every size I've ever been. Those are not serving a purpose."
It wasn't always easy. Shand struggled most to get rid of her large collection of race T-shirts.
"I was a runner for many, many years, and then I suffered an injury about a year ago, and I'll probably never be able to run again. I had 50, probably 75 T-shirts from races that I've run in the past," Shand said. "They were just sitting in a drawer, but still, the emotional attachment to those was really strong."
Shand says one thing she will never get rid of is family photos, because those are precious and meant to be passed down. But she has made a point of incorporating more photos into her family's home -- taking down meaningless store-bought decorations from the walls and replacing them with framed family photos instead.
The original decluttering goal was 40 bags, but Shand surpassed that and is still going strong.
"It's at least 60 bags at this point. The neighbors probably thought we were moving, or getting a divorce or something. We're not, I promise. We're just downsizing," Shand said.
Along the way, she's learned some valuable lessons.
"I've come to realize my house is not a store. I don't need to keep everything just in case," Shand said.
As each bag was donated or tossed out, she said she felt better.
"I felt lighter. I really did. I don't think you realize how much things are weighing you down until you don't have them anymore," Shand said. "It's hard to pack them up. It's hard to put them in those bags. But once you see it gone, I don't think you miss any of it."
Her Facebook friends have also made progress.
"It's been really rewarding to see people say similar things, that they feel lighter, that they can have guests in their house again, that they can have a functional guest room, that the treadmill isn't a clothes-hanger anymore," Shand said.
Lent is long over, but Shand is still decluttering and encouraging others to do the same.
"I really feel like I could get another 40 bags out of my house, and I probably still need to," Shand said. "I just really feel like, ‘Why didn't I do this earlier. Why didn't I start like this?’"
To read more about her decluttering experience:
http://thelivingstonpost.com/40-bags-in-40-days-the-decluttering-challenge/
http://thelivingstonpost.com/40-bags-40-days-decluttering-challenge-week-2/
http://thelivingstonpost.com/40-bags-40-days-decluttering-challenge-weeks-3-4/
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