Lent Day 12: Kids' Closet

I wasn't setting out to clean out anything at this very moment but it was like a snowball effect. I went to put something away and kept going. The kids have this shelf on the side of their closet. I was really excited about it when we first moved in but it just became a place where things got tucked into. We had some board games, art supplies, clothes, and memorabilia just hanging out on the shelves. A lot of the toys were ones I was "hiding" from the kids for one reason or another. So those went straight to the donation pile. It was just a collection of randomness so a lot of things got put away in the right places and a bag of toys are getting donated. 

Lent Day 11: Kids' Dresser

Seriously any flat surface is a magnet for clutter to accumulate. Especially when it's in the kids' room. I think the thing that has been a lesson for me is not only simplifying but it's about maintaining. Every day I have a choice to put something on top of this dresser that can be put away later... Or I can take an extra second to walk it to the right place and put whatever it is away. Maintaining anything is harder and less fun than the initial cleaning and decrapifying. This isn't just forty days during lent but a continual daily choice if keeping things clean, organized and simplified. 

Lent Day 10: Keys/Mail Drawer

We have a dresser in our living room that is supposed to help us organize. It does most of the time but from time to time things just get shoved in to hide from the rest of the world. The top drawer holds our keys, mail and other important stuff we don't want to lose. It has become disastrous. So here is the before and afters. Much easier to find our keys now. 

Lent Day 9: Bathroom Drawers

During this process we had a reflection time at my office. We talked about letting God in all the areas of our lives and having him work through the messy stuff and redeem us. The question was asked if we let God into ALL of our rooms in our lives? Or just a few clean ones? As I'm cleaning out big areas that are more public spaces like my desk that's smack dab in the middle of the living room or the nitty gritty bathroom drawers that not very many people get to see into... I reflect on that very question of am I letting God into the nitty gritty or just the nice and pretty? I pray that you're finding that God loves us with an unconditional love that we can't comprehend. But he loves us right in the middle of our mess and not just when we appear to be put together. Here's some if my hidden mess that had to not only be decrapified but had to be wiped down and sanitized. Jesus wipes away all of our sins and makes us back to be what he intended us to be like. 

Lent Day 8: Desk

Oh my desk! I semi work from home and feel like it collects crap on it all week long and then on Friday I just move the junk around to make room for me to work and then the cycle starts over again. Piles of Kaden's papers that come home from school, church and his drawings. He has a memory of an elephant and asks for random drawings and I need to know where they are at all times. Random mail gets on my desk and not to mention other people's mail gets collected there too. The worst is there's that laundry basket of random office stuff (envelopes, labels, you name it) under my desk. It was all in the office until our housemates came back from china and it was a mad dash to clean out the office for them to stay all summer. Yes, the stuff hasn't really moved out of the basket since last July. There was also thank you cards from the kids birthdays, new address we have moved cards and maybe even 2012 Christmas cards in there. If you didn't receive one of those cards there's an envelope with your name on it, personal note written and never addressed or mailed. And since I was decrapifying it went into the recycle. Sorry. We love you, appreciate the gifts you have given our kids, hoped you had a good holiday season and we have a new address. Lol. 

I'm sure tucked away in a closet downstairs we have our wedding Thank You cards. That was 10 years ago folks. Guess what I'm not so good at? Hahah!!!  It's refreshing to have a clean organized work space. There's a few things I still need to do to this space but its a good start. Hope you are able to find one space to simplify and organize today. 

Lent Day 7: Bedside Tables

I think there's a magnetic pull for crap to accumulate on any clear flat surface. Hahah! Our bedside tables have drawers too so that gets filled with stuff. 

Throughout this simplifying process it's been trying to pray through why I'm holding on to garbage... Lots of drawings from the kids, broken toys, ripped clothing. As I look deep into my heart I know much of it stems from being an immigrant family. My parents came here to America with the shirts on their backs and my mom was 8 months pregnant when we arrived in her new home in Seattle. I don't remember lacking much as a kid and I certainly don't remember being "poor". My parents were loved on by the church and by an amazing sponsor family. They worked really hard and were able to now own a house, cars, too many tvs for just two people. Lol. I am very proud of my parents and the work and tears they put into giving their kids a better life. 

So with coming from this background I feel like I need to hold onto everything. Have memories/keepsakes for my kids to take with them. But realizing that I can't keep every single drawing they make. Every single article of clothing or toy. There's a few things like their lovies and first soccer jersey. But they won't care about that letter "A" they traced a hundred times in school. I do have to take out the recycling and garbage after each of these cleans cause the kids will pillage and take out the stuff I'm throwing away or recycling. 

Having clean cleared off bedside tables are amazing for my soul. It's the first and last thing I see when I am in bed. Hope you have a great Wednesday! It's been a full week of lent already! 

Lent Day 6: Stuffed Animals

I think stuffed animals multiply themselves when we aren't looking. They were scattered all over the kid's room. We will donate a bag of stuffed animals and some went to take a bath in the laundry room but the rest got  reorganized and found them a home in a treasure chest. Addysen just sat there and I'm sure she was talking to them like the Disney character Doc McStuffins. Also cleaned and brought a basket of toys back to the basement. It feels good to throw away broken toys and give away stuffed animals to someone who will love them. Simplifying and reorganizing almost gives the kids the idea that they have new toys to play with. 

Lent Day 5: Kid's Bookshelf

My parents were immigrants and we didn't have a lot of books in our house. Even if we did have books they wouldn't be able to read to me anyways. With that said I knew when I had kids books would be a big part of our lives. One of my favorite bosses was an avid reader. He always told me if any one of his kids asked for a book he would never said no. I think he keeps Amazon in business. He was constantly giving us books to read and actually instilled a new love for books in me.  Last week was a book fair at Kaden's school and we added a book a day. I couldn't say no. :) So, the bookshelf was getting a little cluttered and disorganized. I started with hanging up some pictures. We had a few buckets with randomness in them: seashells, game pieces, stickers...etc. Let's not talk about the dust that's under everything. After a good clean and organizing everything is easily accessible. Kaden got home from school and was excited about his clean bookshelf. I even got a "good job mom"! Lol. I love the conversations that happen around story time. We debrief the day and get to pray together. We use the characters in the book to talk about who we want to be like or who has a bad heart. I pray that I will continue to enjoy reading and instill that to my kids. I pray that I will have faith like a child who is still in awe of the world around them. That they have love and joy that's so contagious. May you experience the joy of a child throughout this season of lent.

 

Lent Day 4: Dresser Top

Saturday was a jam packed day. I had an early event that morning. Met up with some friends for lunch and Timbers game in the evening. But had a little time to do Forty Bags in Forty Days. Instead of attacking Joel's clothes I tackled the top of our dresser. Joel has been out of commission so I couldn't just clean out his clothes without him.  The dresser stares at me every day and I can feel the dust bunnies hopping around. I think I could have filled an entire bag with dust. (Just kidding...kinda) Besides dust there was Christmas decorations that didn't make it back into the totes, lots of random paper, shoes, and some random camera stuff. After putting away the random items in their rightful places I ended up with a whole bag of recyclables, small bag of garbage and bag of stuff to take back to work. I feel like its a whole new dresser! Hopefully we can keep random crap off the top of it. Sundays are off so... Hopefully you are having a meaningful lent season. 

Lent Day 3: My Clothes

After having two kids and having lots of clothes that are for the "in between" stages... It was definitely time to clean out my clothes. I'm not complaining. I'm pretty much my same weight as before kids or even through college and high school. But after kids the weight just kind of shifts around a little. Lol. So, the question really is why do I have clothes from high school in my closet?  Crazy! I don't wear any of it. It just gets moved around and shifted over. And why does one person need seven black cardigans? Yep. That's me. Guilty. My problem is that I get a new one cause my old one has a tear or rip in it and instead of letting go of the old one when I buy the new one I just keep both. They are a little different. (I try to justify in my head). Lol. Then over time I have seven. 

I recently read Jen Hatmaker's book Seven. Where each month she chooses seven items of one thing like food, clothes, etc. She only could wear the same seven items of clothes for a whole month. It was entertaining and eye opening. And at the end of the month no one really noticed or cared that she was in the same stuff. Now I'm not going to go to that extreme but it sounded very freeing not to be spending so much time having to think about clothes, folding, washing, matching. Haha! 

It's so crazy that our identity is so wrapped up in our appearance and our clothes can communicate a lot about us. As I was cleaning out my clothes today I was praying that my identity can be fully wrapped in Jesus and the clothes that he dresses me in... Righteousness, love, joy... And not my own selfishness. May this season of lent be a time of reflecting on your true identity and not what this world tries to make our identity. 

Lent Day 2: Kaden's clothes

Day 2.... Again I pulled out a little grocery paper bag thinking I've been on top of Kaden's clothes and he doesn't have much excess. He doesn't have THAT much stuff. But boy was I wrong. Another garbage bag full. Granted, not as full as Addysen's bag... But full nonetheless. 

We used to serve at a place calle Northwest Children's Outreach. It was a place where social workers could request a bag of clothes for a child in need. We would get cards of a kid's name, age and size they wore. They would get a garbage bag of 2-4 shirts, pants, underwear, socks, two pairs of shoes, one coat, and maybe a hat. Some books, a toy and stuffed animal. Their bins would be lacking in certain areas and it would be hard to think these may be the only "new" clothes this kid is getting. Especially hard to think about when I see my kids growing leaps and bounds faster then I can blink. 

Starting my 40 bags in 40 days with cleaning out our clothes has been a reminder to be thankful for the abundance that we have. Thankful for the friends and family that clothe my kids... especially all the soccer gear that kaden has. :) To remember to cherish my kids today, because they grow so fast. To pray for those in need...that the one bag of clothes could mean the world to them. So far day 2 has been an eye opener. Hope you can find an area to simplify and be grateful for today. 

Lent: Day One-Addysen's Clothes

We had play group this morning and a friend of mine was taking about lent and what she was doing this year. She called it decrapifying. Simplifying. Decluttering. 40 days, 40 bags of things. I made a list of the 40 areas I want to tackle. For me my physical space reflects my inner being. When I feel chaotic you can see it in my bedroom. Laundry everywhere, clean or dirty. I was having a hard time with thinking of something to give up for the lent season. I wanted it to be something other then food or coffee or media. I wanted to learn to be disciplined and learn to be a simpler person. So when my friend talked about this it resonated in my heart. It's always nice to do things with other people too. So, day one was Addysen's clothes. I started with a paper bag but ended up having to grab a bigger garbage bag. I think writing the list was a hard thing for me. I got to number 15 and got stuck. But prayed through the areas in which I need to simplify and got to 40. Hope that through this my heart will be more thankful for what I have and that I can think of others and give things away. That I will take to heart not worrying about my daily needs but see how much God loves and cares for me. May this season of Lent draw you closer to the one who created you.