It is almost 2016! I am almost embarrassed to tell you how long it will take me to write that date instead of 2015….
However, I am happy to tell you that in the past few days, Keith and I have spent some time talking about 2015 and what we are going to do differently in 2016. Many times after Christmas (after all gifts have been opened,) we have this terrible feeling of frustration and failure. We feel that by having so much stuff in our house that we are failing and teaching the kids that it is okay to accumulate things, even to the point where you don’t know what to do with everything and every closet and drawer is full and overflowing.
What is also bad is that so much of the stuff sold in stores (especially around holidays) are not things that will last for years, but mostly items that won’t last long and are things that people really don’t need. Items such as pencils with lead broken, toys that are made to break after a couple uses, clothing that might look cute, but won’t last, etc.
So, we are working on a plan to make 2016 better and to minimize what we have in our house currently and to drastically cut down on what we bring into our home. Since we got married just about 20 years ago, we have kept track of expenses in Quicken on our computer. (Talk about fun! It might sound like it isn’t, but it sure is amusing to print out a cash flow statement of 1997 and compare grocery expenses to 2015) When we looked at our 2015 expenses we found that we spent way too much on books (my favorite), tools (Keith’s favorite), and clothing for us.
In 2016, we are not purchasing clothing for us unless it is VERY cheap (yard sales/thrift shops and Kohls clearance!) In fact, we have pinned down Costco as the main culprit (blame Costco as if it isn’t our fault, right?) and have decided that we are NOT even going to look at clothing at Costco.
And books…. I am committing to spending MUCH, much less on them. (Curriculum doesn’t count!)
And, we are committing to not buying things that are not necessities.
And, we are committing to going through our house this year and selling or rehoming items either to someone else who could use them, donating to thrift shops or even just throwing stuff away. I am happy to tell you that even yesterday the kids and I went through the foyer closet and have already freed up some space in there to the point where I now have some free shelves and a large black trash bag filled to donate tomorrow!!(see above photo) The shelving unit in the basement where I have all my craft supplies is next.
And, we are committed to using the money we save from buying less stuff to help with college expenses for our children.
Don’t forget though, by bringing less into your home, you will spend a lot LESS time on clearing things out at a later date! (We will NOT be clearing out our closets next year!!)
Keith and I are convinced that we need to spend less time continually moving things around and trying to figure out how to store all the stuff we have in our house and instead spending more time together as a family without the overwhelming stress of all of our excess. We plan to say “NO” to the consumerism culture and take back the time (and space) for our family.
And really, in accumulating less, you are getting back to some basics!
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