My mother use to say it, I thought she was just rambling, but it is true, the older we get the faster time flies. It seems like yesterday my boys were babies, they’ve grown so fast. They are becoming young men before my eyes. With all this fast-moving life I find myself shifting; shifting ideas and priorities. Talking to my neighbour the other day, he was telling me that he can’t keep up with the weeds in his backyard. He has a huge backyard and the weeds have gotten away on him. We have kept up with the weeds in our yard only because I hired a landscaping company to take care of that for me. We do mow the lawn and keep the property neat, however, I don’t even want to do that any more. I told my neighbour I want to sell the house and pack it all in for something smaller with no property. As much as I love this house and the flowers in my garden, I want simple, I want just what I need in space and in stuff. No clutter, no property, I want less so I can live more. One small glitch with my plans, I am the only one in the family who wants to simplify by moving, no one wants to move. I’m working on it and I plan to keep working on it as time goes by, I’m in for the long haul and I’m not a quitter.
I have to start somewhere, so I’m starting by getting rid of excess stuff. Stuff we don’t use, stuff we will never use, stuff that is in my home because the boys and my husband like to buy stuff. Ok I admit – I’ve got some stuff too but it’s all going, slowly but surely it’s going. I recently read an article entitled “simplify your life in 25 minutes.” This lady never spends more than 25 minutes daily simplifying her life. If she decides her pantry needs organizing, she only spends 25 minutes. She says “I have too much living to do to spend more than 25 minutes on a chore like organizing my pantry.” Smart lady, I like the way she thinks. Debts or rather no debt is part of simplifying your life. Society encourages us to have everything now and not to wait, if something breaks down we must replace it immediately.
Several months ago I heard all this racket coming from upstairs and when I ventured up the stairs to check where all the noise was coming from, I found my youngest standing in the middle of his room looking stunned. He said “my bed is broken mom and I don’t know why.” “Well I know why, it sounded like someone was going to fall through the top floor, you guys were jumping on your bed.” We really needed to replace his bed as it was a cheap Ikea bed frame I bought at a garage sale and the frame was really on its last legs. I was mad of course and then my son says “we can just go buy another one.” Really annoyed me because kids think money grows on trees. I said “no I’m not running out to buy you a new bed, I don’t have the money right now and I’m not purchasing a new bed with my credit card.” “Well what am I supposed to do for a bed?” “I see you still have a mattress, the mattress can go on the floor and you can sleep there until I have enough cashto buy you a new bed.” He wasn’t happy with me but we got rid of the broken bed frame and laid his mattress on the floor. He really needs to understand that wecan’t go running out to purchase big-ticket items at the drop of a hat. The whole idea of teaching him a lesson kind of backfired on me because the other day I told him that we needed to look at new beds and he informed me that he likes his mattress on the ground and doesn’t want a new bed.
His bed pictured below ties in with my quest for the simple life – just what you need, no more, no less. My quest for smaller digs is going to take some work, convincing, conniving and manipulating. I’m going to have to be ruthless in order to get rid of all of the “stuff” we have. The problem with “stuff” is my three boys love “stuff.” I put stuff in the garbage and it’s like my children have “mommy is throwing stuff out sensors” and they quickly become dumpster divers running and diving into the garbage to get their stuff back. Lying and cheat
ing is the only way I’m going to achieve my goal of simpler living and I’m ready for the job. They’ll thank me, once they realize they have more time for play. At least that is the scene running through my head. A simple organized life where everyone co-operates… My mother use to tell me I was a dreamer!
MOMWHEARINGLOSS 