It’s that time of year when we all take stock of the past year and decide where we’ve come up short. This year, much of my time was devoted to decluttering. We went through our entire house last spring (which admittedly is just a three bedroom ranch, but still), and put together a garage sale. And then took all of the remaining stuff to good will. I joined FlyLady this past summer and got rid of bags and bags of stuff. It’s so frustrating though, because we still have way too much STUFF.  Either that, or this problem is due to my poor organization skills (and I’m not ruling that out).

A couple of days ago, I was talking to my husband and telling him how I sometimes fantasize about getting rid of 90% of our possessions and living with less. He scoffed and is obviously under the impression that many of these things are important and necessary…I should point out that he’s sentimental when it comes to posessions, and that he’s a collector of books and movies and television shows. We have the movies and TV shows covered for now, but the books are getting out of hand. Our shelves were overflowing a few months ago so we packed up a few boxes and moved them to the basement. Now with Christmas, we’ve received many more books, and our shelves are overflowing again.

I’m sure many other families hide their clutter, but when I go to other people’s houses I find myself wondering where they stash all the crap that lies around at our house. Seriously where are the unfinished craft projects, the many half-read books, the CD jewel cases (seriously where do those things come from)????  Are other people just better at NOT bringing home things that they don’t have room for?

One of my biggest fears is becoming one of those shut-ins who only has a small amount of space to walk through their home, and who stacks the newspapers and disposable sporks next to the couch so that they have room to curl up and snooze. I really enjoy watching those shows where the professional organizer/decorator comes in and gets real with a family telling them that they only have space for a certain number of things, and so a certain percentage of the lunch box collection, or the silly hat collection, or whatever has to go. I would honestly hire someone to come in and do that for us if I thought there was any way that what they taught us would stick.

Last night, we watched WALL*E for New Year’s Eve (really cute), and I tell you I’m worried about becoming one of those people in the hover chairs in outer space, waiting for Earth to be decluttered enough to be able to go back home.

I guess what I’m saying is that my New Year’s resolution is to get our clutter under control, and have an organized house. This really is my mountain. If you need me, I’ll be over here reading the Simple Living Manifesto .

Okay seriously, how do you keep the stuff in your life to a manageable amount? And what mountain are you resolving to climb in the New Year?