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"I can't do this anymore!"

"I'm just so stressed. I can't handle this!"

"I am so sick of living this way!"

These sort of words have pretty much become normal vacabulary in my mind over the last 2-3 years. I've been living in a state of overwhelmed-ness and it's killing me. Clutter EVERYwhere. Diet controlled by stress. Finances haphazard. I'm just so sick of being stressed.

But no matter how much I've wanted it to change, it wouldn't. I've even told myself that it was a "season". Life would be less cluttered and less stressful once we no longer had babies in the house, or once my husband was finished with school.

While seasons of life may very well cause some measures of stress, I have begun to notice that season changes were not changing the stress factors in my life.

Why? Because I wasn't actively changing these factors. Plain and simple.

My goal for this year is to CHANGE.

With that in mind, I've started an all out war on clutter. I figure, if the clutter's not there, I won't trip on it, right?

So I gathered up the toys (that were mixed in a misheaveled mess all over the house anyway) and dumped them into two huge Sterilite Totes. I mean like HUGE. And I still needed more boxes, so I also filled two smaller Sterilites. That's just a lot of junk. Seriously. And ALL that was constantly all over the living room floor mixed in with a lot of trash.

I only left out a few prized sets and the books and puzzles.

I hauled the totes out to the garage, telling the kids we'd get them back out in a few months and sort through it. While they were a bit concerned and disappointed at the time, I can honestly say that they have not missed anything from those totes. They are also much happier and WAY easier to self entertain.

Pick up time each day is simple, not stressful. When there are only a few items to pick up, it's easier to sort through.

I finally feel like my living room is livable andcompletely managable. I have not felt like that in years.

One other major issue I struggle with is dishes. There always seemed to be an enitre week's worth of dishes piled up all over the kitchen. Majorly stressful. Who wants to cook in a kitchen with no worksapce?

I finally had enough. I put away ANYTHING that we would not use in a day's time. Boxed it up for garage sale. (Except for extra plates, bowls, and silverware. I just stored those where they would be easy to reach should company come.)

The goal of course, is to do dishes every day so that there are clean dishes the next day. However, should I skip a day or two (such as this weekend, while decluttering other areas), there's no huge pile. We simply just hand wash what we need when we need it. Not exactly efficient, but at least there's no huge mess.

These two things alone has completely changed my everyday life. The stress level is lower, and life is easier to live.

My home and life is FAR FROM PERFECT!!! There's still a lot of change that needs to take place.

But the point is: Change doesn't happen, unless we make it change.

What is it in your life that needs changed? What can you do NOW to start the change?