It's Time To Live With Less

With my past 2 pregnancies, my nesting instinct led to redecorated bedrooms and lots of painting. That was back before we were renters. Now, it isn't my house... in fact, most of it isn't even my furniture. So, this time nesting will look very different.

I've tried to set some goals for this year.

1) Less books. I know that this doesn't seem to make any sense, but being pregnant meant that in our last move, I didn't do much of the heavy lifting. My husband says that if I had seen the looks on the faces of the men who helped us when they saw 'another box of books' I would understand that some had to go. So, I'm working on it. First, I'm trying to read as many as I can - check out the Professional Writing label on this blog for book reviews as I finish them.

2) Less clothes. It's hard to know when we have too many and when we don't have enough. I try to purge and take inventory, but then I always have a child who can't find anything to wear. So, I've taken to labeling all the dresser drawers and keeping labeled boxes in the closet with spares and up-sizes of just about everything. I'm trying to stop there. This is especially challenging as we are all so excited about the new baby coming that we want to go out and buy MORE clothes. I think 5-7 outfits per child, especially the older ones who don't spill food and run in the mud so much anymore, is plenty. But, the older they get, the more attached they are to their clothes and the less likely they are to give them up. It's a vicious cycle.

3) Less paper. I've been writing for a long time; mostly on paper. These little scraps add up. I've granted myself a clear storage tub that I can lift by myself (even when I'm pregnant and it's full). My goal is to pare down the amount of paper, either by typing up the handwritten copies and printing them or by simply getting rid of some of the old garbage.

4) Less pictures. This has been an ongoing challenge. I love to take pictures. But, it seems that whether they are prints or saved digitally, my habit is to store them and never really put them to good use. So, getting the best of the best into albums that can sit on the shelf and be shared with family and friends and then purging the rest, I am going to make our next move with less pictures.

5) Less toys. This may be the hardest one of all. Every time I think I can get rid of a toy, someone tells me it's their favorite, and then I just can't let it go. Then, there are some toys that my kids may not even care about, but I personally love, and I can't seem to let them go either. But, my goal for this year is to move with less toys - I don't know what that means exactly or what it will look like in reality, but I do know that it has to be done.

So, with these goals in mind, I head into the last 9 weeks of pregnancy, motivated and already exhausted. Funny how that works.