Week Four: Year of Less

Last week, I wanted to:

• Weed out too-small Charlotte clothes and put them in a bin.
• Empty out my car. 
• Go through my socks and get rid of/rag the threadbare ones.
• Make breakfast cookies on Sunday and experiment with freezing for the week.

I really need to work on my discipline. Truly, I'm getting much, much better about leaving the kitchen relatively neat every night; I STILL have clean clothes in a basket from Saturday, though. 

It's not all grey clouds and rain puddles, though - I did a few things off-list that helped the house feel more open. Matt even got in on it, and went through his dresser. I dropped several bags of clothes off at a church thrift store, and I'm embarrassed to say that two of those bags had been sitting in our hallway for probably five months. Shameful. Still, they're out of the house, and I'll take any victory I can get.

I don't think I mentioned that I signed up for this Slow Home BootCamp, have I? I haven't actually done any of the tasks, but it's a nice idea and I am feeling compelled to do Task 6 (declutter bookshelves) this weekend. Over the course of the year, I have done pretty well with getting rid of books that don't hold some sort of value to us, be it sentimental or educational or entertainment. But now that Charlotte is moving around and getting curious, I think this is a good time to really be honest with myself/ourselves about what we're keeping and why. 

This week, I want to: 

• Make a meal plan that uses freezer food.
• Declutter the bookshelves - there are four five six in our house, plus a few deliberate piles. 
• Make a hugelkultur bed (this is not related to simplifying, but it's a major goal that will hopefully help me do more  with less money, so it's allowed because: "year with less" is pretty close to "year of less").
• Finish last week's goals.