The Art of Simplification in a World of Junk (aka. I Have a Problem)

I've been feeling the need for simplification lately. This feeling really came to a head at the end of my pregnancy when I organized and scoured my house from top to bottom--no room or surface was left untouched. Now that the baby is 3 months old, the sleepless nights that accompany a newborn are subsiding, and I'm feeling more like my old self. Time to get a jumpstart on spring cleaning and life simplification.

Let me be frank--my house is full of crap. We have too much furniture, too many clothes, too many toys, too many knick-knacks, too much, too much, too much. I know this. I have always known this. We moved from a 1000 square foot house with a one car garage packed full of crap to a nearly 3000 square foot house with a two car garage THAT IS STILL FULL OF CRAP! I complain about our garage full of junk, yet I am partially responsible for filling it up. I complain that we have too much crap, yet I buy more.

Case in point: the lockers. When a friend of mine was moving, she advertised that she was selling a bunch of stuff. Knowing that she had great taste and lots of vintage goodies, Dave and I trotted on over to her house to check out a set of school lockers. In her cool 1930s bungalow, the 1960s era cool greenish blue lockers looked fabulous. They looked just like the lockers I used in high school--real vintage! My eyes twinkled with excitement...I wanted them, had to have them, couldn't live without them. $150 worth of awesomeness. Of course, they were heavy as hell and hard to move. We recruited a guy friend to help us move them. David used his legendary packing skills to strategically fit them into our Chrysler Pacifica. We unloaded them just inside the garage doors (HEAVY!), and this is where they sit today. They've been there for almost exactly one year. One year. Oy.

Oh, and have I mentioned my $8 thrift store chair? I have had plans to learn how to reupholster furniture for years now. Not wanting to tear up my furniture or risk ruining a truly fabulous vintage piece, I have had my eyes peeled for a chair that I could practice on. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I found the perfect specimen for $8! A little club chair covered in yellow crushed velvet (!) with skinny wooden legs and wood armrests. Ah, PERFECT! I bought the chair in June. Right now, it's sitting next to another vintage chair in my living room creating a little seating area. It looks like I'm preparing for a garage sale. Not. Even. Kidding.

My other problem is collecting vintage furniture and miscellaneous crap from family members. Don't get me wrong, I acquired all of my favorite pieces in this manner, but when you're a sentimental furniture-aholic it becomes hard to know when enough is enough. We have a few (4) too many dressers and vanities, 2 extra dining tables (in the garage), bed rails from an old bunk bed set (surely we could use that wood, right? Ha.), boxes from David's grandpa that I haven't even looked through, a butcher block island that Dave's grandpa made (which I DO love and intend to use), an extra full bed (more vintage family stuff), and a mudroom full of more crap. What is wrong with me? Clearly, I have a problem.

My furniture addiction doesn't stop there. I also have a tendency to buy crappy Target furniture under the guise of organization. We have 4 Target bookcases and a TV armoire that are not being utilized properly and need to go. Granted, these things worked well in my little 1000 square foot house with no storage space. The house i live in now has TONS of storage space that goes unused because I'm still storing all my crap on these shelves. Something has got to give! We actually have some hand made (by David) furniture on loan to my grandma for her farm house, too. David made three side tables because we thought we needed them. Whyyyyy? Who knows, but we must have really needed them (Pshaw!).

Sooooooo, my goal is to properly utilize all of my lovely vintage pieces (within 2011), get rid of what I cannot find a use for, and NOT buy or accept more crap. This will be hard, given the extent of my problems and my ideas for some of the pieces in my garage...like turning two pedestal bases from one long table into two smaller tables. Wha? I know. It's a problem. I'm working on it. (I will post pictures when I can get out into my garage without freezing my arse off)