Summer Recap and Back to School... and Work

Our full school schedule is now starting its third week (we start school late around here, and preschool starts even later), so it's time for life to return to some semblance of normal.

I was expecting my summer to be productive time spent continuing my decluttering quest, in addition to keeping my kids entertained with fun summer activities. Based on the amount of decluttering I completed (very little), I need to adjust my expectations.

All I wanted to do this summer was hang out with my kids. We did numerous non-productive mundane activities, including swinging on our rope swing, chewing bubble gum and learning to blow bubbles, and occasionally making it all the way to the swimming pool. We also celebrated both kids' birthdays and went to the beach twice. For some reason I was expecting to get more done despite the fact that my kids were involved in fewer activities during the day. They were always around, standing between me and their coveted piles of stuff saying, "MOM, DON'T SELL MY BABIES!"

I did have some house projects going on; our masonry and landscaping project took most of the summer, and we had some electrical work done. It took a lot of time and effort to stay on top of these projects (which were hired out to contractors, I wasn't even doing the work myself!) as well as doing the regular tasks that need to be done around the house.

Now, at least I know what to expect of myself next summer: not very much! After my declutter challenge is over, I'll change to a different focus; instead of getting rid of items year round, I'll focus on purging once in the spring and once in the fall.

This means that I need to focus on October as my next big declutter month. My basement is filling up as I recently did Birthday Declutters on my son's room (1 large container full) and my daughter's room (4 boxes!). If it doesn't get decluttered in October, it probably won't leave the house until next year, as I already know I won't have a lot of spare time to work on the project in November and December.

So, we'll see what I can complete next month!