Category: Family

Ready to Die!

I know that title sounds a little morbid.  I mean it in a very practical way though.  For some time Stacy and I have talked about putting together our Will and other documents that will aid in case one or both of us pass away.  Especially because our kids are very important to us and we want them to be taken care of.  The problem is, we’ve only talked about it for a long time!  We recently decided that we would do more than just talk, we actually did it!  We have been aware of legalzoom.com for quite some time which offers legal documents at a reduced price compared to hiring a lawyer.  The nice part is that these documents are put together and reviewed by actual lawyers and can be downloaded once complete.  We got our documents printed and went in to our bank which offers free notary services to those who bank there.  It is finally done!!!

Now I’m ready to die!  I don’t plan to for some time but I feel really good that if something did happen, my girls would be taken care of.  This has been a weight on me for quite some time and I thought I would blog about it to hopefully inspire some of you out there who have merely talked about it yourselves to take some action.  I know I’m glad I did!

 

Letting Go of Clutter!

About 6 years ago Stacy and I stood in our garage and were thinking about where we could add more shelves to store things.  I remember the moment when Stacy said, “Instead of building more shelves to store more stuff, what if we just got rid of things and lived with less!”  In that moment something shifted in both of our hearts and we have been on a journey to live with less.

Getting rid of things is an emotional process!  There is a particular reason we’ve bought each of our items and a reason we have held onto them.  That reason (multiplied by 1000) is why clutter fills up our houses and our garages.  It’s also the reason its so hard to let it go.  Each item holds some value to us.

Since that day, we have worked countless days to get to the point where we love EVERY area of our house.  I wish I can say its been easy but it hasn’t; It is hard and difficult.  Once you arrive, in a sense that is when the real work begins because you have to maintain it!

Approximately 3 years ago we reached one of our best places we’ve been so far.  Having gotten rid of a lot, Stacy finished the garage while I was out of town and it looked fabulous.  We celebrated and worked hard to keep it clean.  We did for a while but like so many areas, after time we were back to clutter.

We’ve been working hard for the past few days to go another round.  Some moments we feel like we are winning and others we feel like we’ve been punched in the gut.  But we are going to keep fighting.

I can’t believe how many things we’ve let go of over the last 6 years.  I can’t believe how much stuff we still have!  Our goal is when you come over to our house and open a cupboard, you notice how little we have and the extra space on the shelf.  When you go into our garage, you will find our cars actually live in there and you will wonder how we keep our house so clean.  We will smile because there will hardly be anything in there.

Until then…