Combatting the Hoard

So I have an addiction to reality TV. I mean the real, reality TV of the TLC, Discovery, and History Channel Variety. No weekend is complete without a little Gold Rush, Ax Men or Dirty Jobs. Don’t even get me going on Moonshiners (or as I call it, Homesteading gone wrong), but tonight’s drug of choice is Hoarders. I am strangely drawn to it because I think there is a little Hoarder Gnome living in my soul. Occasionally, he rears his ugly head when there is a good sale, or when I am certain that a missing sock is engaged in covert operations just south of the boarder and will be home any day. I would’ve thought my newly found love of homesteading and making use of “everything” would turn me into a flea market junkie. On the contrary, I have felt the need to simplify and make do without. Now let’s not get crazy, everyone needs a cake pan for all occasions, and excessive Christmas decorations are fun for everyone, but on the whole I have found that avoiding the hoard has made me feel more secure. So, every week we do a purge. Some are smaller than others. Sometimes the focus is the fridge where waste not, want not can pretty rapidly turn into waste not, eat not if you want to survive. Many times it focuses on our Achilles heal of clutter: paper. Bills, mail, pre- school artwork, etc. I have discovered the joy of the ebill through our credit union which should help. Upcoming, we will be doing a clothes purge ( let’s be honest, there are just things that will never fit again) and a toy purge with our daughter’s full cooperation (she loves the idea of giving her old toys to kids in need). I have even been able to part with books (which as many of you know are my “precious”). Each day I feel a little closer to full simplification, and barring my love of cake pans literature and a little organized grocery stockpiling, a clutter free house that will help us to reach our long term goals. As for 00sock, I expect to hear from him any day now as does his better half.

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