I’ve been dragging my feet on my project over the last few days. I think I’m over this whole decluttering thing, and just want it to be finished. There’s space in the garage and attic now because of all the things we’ve gotten rid of, and I’ve been slowly putting things in bags and boxes and moving them into the garage until I feel like dealing with them. There’s no impending court date or similar to motivate me to tackle all the crap, so I’m trying out some other ideas to motivate myself.

I debated in my head for a while about whether or not to put those things out of sight, or to leave them lying about. I almost feel like I don’t deserve a clutter-free house until I’ve truly earned it by getting rid of everything, which is why I make myself look at all this stuff I mostly don’t need or want. And having stuff out of sight means I’m not thinking about it. But I finally decided to get as much out of the house as possible, and as time allows I’ll go through it all, slowly, and put away or toss.

Here are my current ideas, more effective than lighting an actual fire under my ass:

• Challenges: My stuff in/stuff out challenge has been helpful, mostly because I’m getting rid of things more regularly, but also because the idea of getting rid of even one thing really propels me when I feel lazy and I usually get rid of more than one thing. Today all I wanted to do was read. It was sunny and beautiful today but it got humid as the day went on which added to my lethargy. But I dragged myself into the garage and put 16 things in a box. We are going camping later this week and I needed to dig some supplies out of the garage. I thought filling a box while I searched was a good idea, and it was. I’ve been thinking about a similar 30-day challenge for July. I have some ideas but haven’t settled on anything yet.
• Audiobooks: Back in the fall, I realized I am over music. When I commuted by car I was always finding new artists and good songs but it’s harder now. Being a book snot, I turned up my nose at audio books but I started to listen during walks and loved them. Since the books motivated me to keep walking, I decided to see if this approach would help me with cleaning. My current book, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, is really good, and today it really helped  propel me through the task.  I was able to not let the humidity bother me so much and I didn’t over-think whether or not to give something away. I’m only on chapter 2 of the book so I hope to make a big dent before I finish it.
• Netflix: Not as mobile as books, but I can fold laundry, which I’ve done before, and I can also sort through stuff to add to donation boxes. Today was Emma’s last full day of school and for the last several days she’s been coming home with notebooks and workbooks and papers.

Today’s paper haul.

I need to sort and recycle which I plan to do in front of the tv. Most of this will get recycled but I want to keep the few pieces of original writing. I need to clean this out too, which is also mostly school papers.

My command center, which has been swallowed by paper.

I planned to go through all the papers tonight while watching House of Cards, which was going to occupy me while sorting through endless math and spelling worksheets. But I didn’t get around to it as I was distracted by the story of the escaped convicts who’ve been spotted near the park where we’ll be camping. I’m not worried they’ll appear at our cabin jonesing for s’mores but I have been very distracted by the stories and my inner geography nerd has spent too much time looking over maps of the Southern Tier when I should have been dong something productive.

I bought only four books at the book sale- a fraction of what I bought last year. I felt both pleased with myself for being restrained and a little disappointed that I didn’t see much else that I really wanted.

My newest epiphany, which I’ll talk about Wednesday: spending a few days enjoying the outdoors, sleeping under the stars (ok, in a cabin), and cooking over a campfire are things that epitomized simplicity. Right? WRONG! Oh, so wrong!