Operation Pre-Winter Simplicity; NaBloPoMo

I think I did pretty good with blogging most day's in October. I need to double check but I'm pretty sure I blogged more day's than not, so more than half the month. And the month's not over yet.
It's just been busy. And I've been tired. Plus I got hit with mastitis and pretty bad clogged ducts so I've been wiped out to say the least.

But onward and upward. Right?

Anyway. I've been reading a book called Simplicity Parenting. I've been reading it for months now and again the library isn't too happy with me. They should have a longer check out time for parents because everyone knows there's no time to read. I'm not even a 1/4 through it but I already love what it's saying. It's in line with what my husband and I have always wanted to do anyway.

More minimalist, more simple, less cluttered, not so "commercialized" lol.

We live in a pretty small town home with a 1 car garage. There are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We're feeling pretty cramped in here. It's not that we can't all live here comfortably. I have no issue with my girls sharing a room but it'd be nice to spread out a bit more. (They won't be sharing a room until the little one finally sleeps a bit better so she's still in our room.)

If you do some reading about a more minimalist lifestyle, if you read about child development, if you read about stress, anxiety, being overwhelmed, you'll find that visual clutter pops up in all of these topics. I'm not talking about wanting to do an extreme sweep of our home and get rid of everything but there is far stuff in this house than we need right now.

So I have a goal. By the first day of winter, I want my home more organized. We have stuff we don't use and that never gets seen. I have things I'm attempting to sell that we don't need anymore and I either want it sold or donated by winter. There are also some cleaning projects I have in mind; underneath both of our bathroom sinks,...it's bad people. When I got to about 7.5 months pregnant with my littlest one I stopped even attempting to bend over and put things away. They just got thrown in there. And then I had the baby, and, well...I have 2 kids so things still just get thrown in there because I don't have time haha! I want to go through my kitchen and re-organize the cabinets. When we first moved in here it was just my husband and myself. Now we have two little people running/crawling around and our needs have really changed. I'd also like to clear more things off the counters. You can ask my mother...I hate appliances on the counter that only get used once in a while.

I'd like to have these things done by winter because I know there are going to be many days that it's too cold/snowy/wet/slushy/windy/miserable to venture outside, even to the car, and we'll be cooped up in the house. I'd like to not feel like I'm suffocating on those days because I love being outside and out and about. It would be nice to be comfortable in our home and not overwhelmed with stuff.

Hmmm...Maybe I'll bump it up 11 days and say by December 11th. Since the baby I brought home from the hospital 2 seconds ago will be turning 3 (WHAT?!??!?!) mid December, and I'm sure she'll be getting more things for her birthday, it'd be nice to already have gotten rid of the unused stuff before hand.

There you have it. Let's see if I can stick with it. I'm excited too to finish this book. Once I'm done I'll do a review of it here in case anyone else is interested in it. And to me this is about more than just organizing and cleaning up. It's about being happy and comfortable and not stressed over visual stimuli all day long.

Now I need to see if there's some way I can create a running/live list on my blog here to update and cross things off of?