Simplify has been my mantra for 2014 (hence the blog name simply crafted). We did a HUGE purge of stuff back in January. Our entire guest room was filled to the brim with clothes, shoes, knick knacs, and who knows what else. We had just moved into this house 8 months before and purged then. And now it's time to purge again.

Where does all this stuff come from?

About twice a year I find myself stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in our house. More stuff = more stress = more things to clean and put away = less time for the fun stuff.

This most recent urge to purge was brought on by two things:

My closet. I wear the same things over and over. I "never have anything to wear." Except that I do. Maryam over at hi-and-hello posted recently about her capsule wardrobe experiment, and that was the last push I needed. More on this later.

All the toys. This is a touchy subject. I'm grateful that my boys have toys and things to play with. I'm grateful for the loved ones who have purchased them for us and all of the love and kind feelings behind them. But it's a continual source of stress and fighting. The 3 year old doesn't want to clean them up. Ever. I don't want to look at a messy play room that overflows into every other area of our house. And I really don't want to be the mean o'l mom that's constantly nagging about cleaning up.

Our home should be a source of calm and peace. Not stuff and stress. I feel like I spend 80% of my life just moving sh*t around from where it's ended up to where it needs to go. Maybe I'm becoming a minimalist. Probably not, but something closer to it would be nice.

Also, I worry about my kids not valuing what they have. There is little need to care for their belongings because there are just so many things. If something gets broken, who cares? There's 100 other toys to replace it.

In the last few weeks I've taken 4 Rubbermaid tubs full of toys to the garage. Henry has yet to notice. That's how much stuff he has.

I'll share more as both of these projects unfold. I hope to have all of this under control before the holidays hit and the next influx of stuff happens (Lord help us). Any helpful wardrobe ideologies or toy control tactics to share?

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