URCH!

I have hit a roadblock of sorts with my decluttering/simplifying.

Clothing is easy... if I toss something that it turns out I want again, I can go to my favourite thrift store and find dozens of qualified replacements for really cheap (and so far I have not had to do that)! Same goes for most of the kitchen gadgets... BUT there are other items that are stumping me....

I have furniture that I LOVE that does not fit in this house. My antique, Canadiana drop-leaf table for example.... it's been clogging up my office for years, a magnet for piles of clutter, but I enjoy even looking at it! A monsterous, shiny baker's rack that rolls from one inconvenient spot to another in the laundry/spare room. Again I love the way it looks but it's in the way all the time and it's packed with stuff.

I have furniture that I HATE that is too functional to part with.... mostly storage items. A wooden chest that is functioning as a coffee table in the family room and conveniently stores100s of the kids DVDs, it has a broken hinge and stupid, sharp brass straps around it that are just plain hazardous. A stupid little filing cabinet that serves as a bedside table for my husband (and is packed full of his belongings), ugly and not quite right in the bedroom. My dingy, putty grey, horizontal file cabinet that is also serves as my 2nd desk in the office. Those are things I would happily toss or donate if I had viable replacements.... but I don't.

I have craft projects/supplies that still fill me with creative giddiness at the hope of finishing them one day but are holding me back (for space freedom) at the same time.

I have piles of books that I haven't read yet that don't fit in my bookshelf because I don't want to evict any books that I know I do like for these unknowns.

I have jewelry that I rarely (if ever) wear, but I still enjoy looking at, just junk stuff nothing valuable to anyone but me.

I have SO MANY TOYS in this house that I want to cry out in frustration! But they aren't mine to toss -- or are they? I wish there was some way to talk the kids into letting the sheer volume of them go without hurting them. I think part of my hoarding tendencies of the past have been from my parent's "clean out" sessions in my childhood when I'd come home and things (precious things) would be gone. It hurt. I have offered to "buy" the toys or bribe them with a new toy if they'll get rid of a certain quantity, but it doesn't work for long and never to the degree I would hope for.

Pet paraphernalia.... we don't have excessive things for our pets, a bed and bowls for the dog... a litterbox and scratching post for the cat.... but they are rather large and conspicuous items (especially the wretched post -- but if I remove that, my armchair would be on the hit list!) and not attractive. No pets would be kind of nice actually.... less hair, less stink, less grit and grime.... but I love the furballs so much they are fine companions as I work at home and good to the kids too.

As I swoon at the thought of a semi-minimalist, streamlined home, the reality is there are things I am indecisive about. A place for everything and everything in it's place has not been achieved yet.