I keep getting stuck!!!!!!

[Savoir Faire]

I have been living simply (sometimes better than others) for several years now. I have always HATED how much *STUFF* we have...and I know that we actually have a lot LESS than others!

Totally true: A friend came by with her kids to play. She commented how my kids actually have a decent (Read: Not too crazy) amount of toys and that her kids have way too many.

But...at the same time, I just feel so pulled down by all our STUFF. Over the past 2 years, we've gone from 1400 sq feet to 2100. We have no attic. No basement. I live in AZ, so you can't leave anything you like in the garage (or in the back) because IT. WILL. MELT.

I am ALWAYS bringing things to the resale shop to donate. Always tossing...and yet...oh my gosh, we still have SO MUCH STUFF. And just now...I went into my closet and just felt STUCK. I decluttered a bit more...but there's still so much.

To make matters worse...I have two part-time Etsy hobbies. One is vintage and the other is selling reshaped crayons. The vintage stuff does take up a lot of space, and that's AFTER I pared down my inventory.  (And really, compared to most Etsy people...I don't have too much!)

Do you ever just feel stuck? Feel like you're always decluttering and never getting anywhere? How do you get past it????

[clutterwarrior]

YES!! I definitely feel stuck sometimes. I know I have made a lot of progress since I stumbled upon this forum last year, but I still get times of frustration, when I feel I will never have things looking good.

A lot of you who live minimally would probably think I have way too much stuff still, despite how many thousands of things I have tossed...and I have literally hundreds of things that I would really like to sell, but I am too darn lazy lately to list them on ebay, especially since paypal robbed me last year, but that's another story....

I hear you about the hobbies...I am into collecting vintage stuff/antiques, AND I am an artist, which is a recipe for trouble when it comes to acquiring clutter!  So I seem to attract stuff like Pigpen attracts dirt...sigh!! 

[Juvysen]

yep, me too.  Constant struggle.  Right now I'm looking at the ribbon my toddler dragged out and thinking "why am I keeping this?"  It's the kind for, like, gifts, but I haven't used it in ages out of laziness.  Meh, time for it to go, I think. 

For me, though, I think it doesn't help that my kids don't ever put their toys away.  I mean, they do if I nag and freak out, but lately I've been warning them three times and then the toys go in a garbage bag (that I put away for a while).  I think I'm going to sort out the toys they use the most from that and the rest are going out.  I'm so done with this mess.

I also realized that as I declutter, I get higher standards, so the level of clutter (though lower) is still too high.  I imagine that'll stop eventually, but maybe not!

[Savoir Faire]

I feel like I'm either all or nothing. "I'm just going to toss EVERYTHING!" Except it feels like everything is either kid (or homeschool) stuff...or stuff that just can't be tossed. Except I know it can...I just feel trapped.

Argh.