My favorite quote:

Keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

Dunah Mulock Craik

April 1826 - 12 October 1887

Your Clutter Free Journey

Take the first step on your Clutter Free Journey to living a beautiful, clutter free life! On your journey, you will examine your relationship with the stuff in your life and it's impact on your overall well-being. You will learn to make choices over what you invite into your home. The way we feel inside is directly reflected in our living spaces. In turn, our living spaces affect our internal well-being. By making small, steady changes in our living environment, we can change how we feel inside and make our homes a reflection of what is important to us.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Old Mother Hubbard


Several years ago, I was visiting a friend who had just moved into a new home. After showing me around her house, we settled down at the kitchen table, and I commented on how much I liked her kitchen cupboards. She grinned and started to giggle. I had no idea what was funny, so I asked her what was amusing. She very sweetly said she had never heard anyone say “cupboard” before and it made her think of Old Mother Hubbard. I didn't realize they were called anything else and asked her what she called them. Trying to keep a straight face she answered "cabinets". We both stated laughing. My parents, having grown up in northern Maine never called them anything but cupboards, so of course, I did as well.

This story came to mind the other evening while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. I went to retrieve a piece of plastic-ware, and as I opened the door, an avalanche of mismatched lids and bottoms poured out of the cupboard. I'd had enough. I sat down on the floor then and there and pulled out a hodgepodge of various shapes and sizes of plastic containers. They covered my kitchen floor. I spent 20 minutes matching lids to the corresponding container, wiping out the shelves and throwing away all unmatched/damaged pieces. I gathered several that were not being used and put them in my donation box. I then stared and smiled at my lovely “less cluttered” space. This prompted me to move to a deep drawer that “breeds” plastic cups and I cut its content in half. A few days later, I tackled under the boys bathroom sick with the help of my youngest, put in new drawer liners and threw away a very large bag of trash!

Unlike Mother Hubbard, these days our cupboards are rarely bare rather overflowing with excess. So, go ahead, feel the liberation of purging what you no longer need.