Nesting

Is it possible to be nesting at 21 weeks pregnant?  My mind is going so frantically that I cannot even focus for a few minutes at a time.  I am plotting and planning and moving things and throwing things away, desperate for less.  Does anyone ever feel like their 'stuff' starts to sit heavy and weigh down on their shoulders?  The time it takes for me to move and shuffle 'things';dusting, rearranging, and organizing, is simply not worth having those things to begin with.  

How to make the switch to living more simplistically?

I read this blog and was inspired, but simultaneously overwhelmed.

We are trying to accommodate another life in our home, which is already full.   In a lot of ways, we'd be happy with more space, but we are not that interested in taking on a bigger mortgage and a heavier load on our finances.  We want to make do, for now.  But that means that furniture simply has to go.  Shelves simply have to be built, and our home is in desperate need of a space-efficiency renovation.  Yet, who has time for that?  We have a list a mile long of little projects that would make our home more livable that just get shelved weekend, after weekend.  Curtains to hang, dresser drawers to fix, rooms to be stripped of their extraneous possessions and organizational accouterments to be built.

I'm going crazy.

I don't think it helps that there is currently a mattress on the floor of my living room, an unusable freezer in my garage and boxes of too small boys clothes hoarding our closets and shelving.

Stuff.  Stuff.  Stuff.  

I think we need to sell half the stuff we own and do not use as it simply stresses me out. Yet, there's this other side of me that, in the hopes of being economical, that I keep just in case we might use them.  Empty peanut butter jars, empty containers, empty boxes, extra sheets, extra clothes, clothes 10 sizes too big for the boys that I'm keep for that day.  But is it really economical?  It might save a few bucks in the end but my emotional stress and time spent in upkeep, costs something, doesn't it? 

My big question now is what to do with all my sentimental hoarding?  I have about 2-3 boxes of childhood knick-knacks and toys that I have boxed away for that day when I have a little girl (yay, at least that is in the somewhat near future!)  But the truth is, will she even care to see it?  Play with it?  It will carry no memories for her.  Or what about the boxes of letters that I've kept from Jason and I, Christmas cards and notes from family, and my yearbooks?  Good grief!  Yearbooks!  How long have I been carting them around and have I even looked at them again, ever?  Whose idea was it to have them??  And then there's my prom dress and wedding dress and...

Sigh.  Please, tell me a system and method that you use to decide what to keep and what to chuck.  I simply cannot have any more 'things' in my life or my brain is going to explode.  I find it stressful ensuring that the boys wear all the clothes they own, or making sure that I pull out saved toys at the right moment, or not forgetting that I have that kitchen do-dad or gadget that is so useful but also happens to be dusty and broken from lack of use in the deepest recesses of my kitchen cabinets.

Help!!!

I know I should just start somewhere and do one room at a time but we really just need a weekend, or a week to just do the whole house over.  Know what I mean? 

Maybe this Christmas we need to find homes for a bunch of things we don't use. Maybe we should see how much we can sell, so that we can give that monetary value away.  Any ideas are welcome!