A Mya and Ellie, and honestly mostly just Catherine, Rule

That you can have too many shirts and toys and shoes and books you’ve read a thousand times over 10 years ago, and so on. Travis is not included in this rule as he is my hero in the don’t hold on to crap you don’t use anymore brigade. I am on a mission to declutter and simplify our lives. I found myself thinking the other night of things I’d save in a fire and aside from grabbing my precious family, I couldn’t think of much else, well my Nikon too, no fire is snatching that thing. In that thought a goal appeared simply and powerfully in my mind, make space for what’s important. So we are purging our life of the things we don’t need. It started with me erasing emails lingering in my inbox. I had an email with a video of a dog falling in a pool I’d saved for nearly longer than I’ve been married. Once I started erasing I began feeling empowered and better, just from a few emails, well to be truthful on this mission, over 3,000 emails. Let me repeat so the full weight of my attachment can be felt, three thousand and there may have been more than one video of a dog falling in a pool. Now the task has begun, I will make a huge sign that reads declutter and symbolically post it on my front door. I’m not talking about the children’s books I have that can fill a bookshelf that my mother saved from my childhood, those stay put, or both of my girls’ Baptism dresses, or the shoes I wore when Travis and I were married at my dad’s house on the lake, I’m talking about the ticket stub I still have from seeing Pearl Jam in eighth grade and my Seven jeans from college that can barely fit over my ankle. The time has come to say goodbye to possessions that are merely that to make room for everything truly important to me, Mya, Ellie, and Travis, and my Nikon, a girl as picture obsessed as me has gotta have her camera. Stay tuned for pictures of the overwhelmed staff at Goodwill possibly refusing my seemingly endless bags of clutter.