I decided to join in on the fun after lurking for a couple weeks. This community is amazing and quite motivating! :)
I've been struggling with clutter for most of my life. I grew up in a packrat home with most of the clutter belonging to my mother. Her hobby has always been shopping for/decorating with cute trinkets. She never took care of them so each trinket was covered with dust. She has always boasted how proud she is of her posessions and what she acquired in her home, yet I couldn't have friends to visit because she said the house "needed to be cleaned up". Any time special occassions would arise (like birthdays), we'd take out the camera and right away she'd start lecturing us to "get a nice background" (AKA non-cluttered background). Needless to say when the photos were developed she'd criticize us for not taking a good photo and cut an outline around the person to remove the clutter and display the cutout person in a frame. *sigh*
I feel bad to say I learned this behavior from her at a young age. I'd go with her shopping and learned to snatch up a good find whenever I saw it, which was quite often if you consider the shopping hunt occurred every weekend to several times a week. I think she believed she was bonding with me this way? My bedroom was small and I quickly filled it with trinkets and toys. As a teen I removed the toys and instead filled it with novelty collections, posters, sparkly things, cute things... the basic teen girl's clutter. :)
I'm now a young adult and find myself feeling claustrophobic and weighed down by my clutter. Recently I realized my shopping habits are the same as hers. This was a huge self-realization and I want them to change. I watch Hoarders, Buried Alive, and I frequent this site plus read a few blogs. I don't have much money so I shop thrift, dollar stores, church sales and garage sales. I really enjoy bargain shopping and the thrill of finding an awesome deal but I'm learning to control it with the "one in, one out" rule and "how & when will I use this?" rule.
So far I've gotten rid of lots of clutter! :) I've donated to Goodwill and thrown away plenty of trashbags. I also sell online which is SOOOO much fun and turned into a new hobby which I love even more than shopping LOL. My goal/fantasy is to eliminate so much that if I need to relocate instantly I can do it in a single car load (hence my name Gypsy) with the things I need and love. I'll be making a blog very soon and posting photos of my progress which I hope you all will enjoy because you all inspired me to change my life into a happy one. :)
