DeClutter

I have seen a popular desire amongst other bloggers to declutter! I feel the same way, and I only have a family of 4. But junk just gets in the way and makes cleaning up take twice as long, and scrambles your brain when you try to think where the important things are. Some ways I have decluttered:

1. Dishes. I think it is the smartest idea to have 1 plate, 1 bowl, 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 knive PER family member, and make the dishes unique to each person so we know who left their dish dirty, etc. Also getting rid of unnecessary pots & pans
2. Clothes: You only need 2-3 outfits of each type: outdoor play, everyday public wear, & pajamas. IF that. Laundry doesn't have to be a necessary evil, if we would stop trying to have so many different outfits. No one thinks twice what you wear in public. Especially in my family, because my husband does construction work he just wears jeans & t-shirts, so it's easy to just keep 2-3 pairs of jeans in rotation and replace when one pair gets super worn out. Same goes for socks & underwear. Have a minimum amount and then just buy new ones when they get worn out. My husband when I first married him, literally had almost 30 pairs of worn out socks, that he felt still had some life. So I convinced him to just have 6 pairs at a time, and so they can wear out faster and you can replace them instead of wearing 30 pairs for so long. makes sense!
3. Toys. Children. Don't. Need. So many. Toys. PERIOD. I have gotten rid of 75% of toys, and kept more practical toys. Children have lived CENTURIES without so many toys, but in the past children had bigger families and possibly a farm with animals. And that's a whole post in and of itself, how I do not let my children have stuffed animals or dolls.

Now I envy sometimes 'normal" people that live in subdivisions, and really only have to maintain the household, because 50% of my clutter angst comes from outside (being we raise chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, & rabbits) there seems to always be some loose trash some where from feed bags. Buckets, trays & wire loose in the yard, as well as wood & tools. It can be a wreck outside!