Before I start this post….let me just say, I am not a New Year’s Resolution type of person.  My view is typically that if you want to resolve to do something, why wait until January.  That being said, this resolution happened to fall at the end of 2011 and it’s something that I want to make a concerted effort to do so I thought I’d post about it and let you follow along with my progress.

The first part of the purge has to do with our house.  Almost three years ago, we moved from an 1800 sf farmhouse (that my husband and I contracted and did most of the work ourselves) to a 2950 sf home in a small neighborhood.  Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled with the increased size of our new home!  When we moved in, we had tons of empty space and empty closets due to our lack of furniture (and accumulated junk) for our much larger home.  Well…over the past three years, we have managed to fill all our closets and rooms and we are now in need of a good purging.  Now don’t go thinkin’ that I am a hoarder.  I am a compulsive purger and throw away/ give away and sell stuff every chance I get.  To a fault actually!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to rummage through the trash for a piece of paper that the kids needed for school that I had thrown away thinking it was junk!  So, this year, my goal is to end up with less than we start the year with…much cleaner and less closets, attic, cabinets and rooms to boot.

I don’t want to end up like this:

We are strongly considering putting our house up for sale the latter part of this year in hopes to move back out (just not as far out) as we miss the peace and serenity of being out in nature .  I’ll post details one day on why we chose to move where we did but our home now was a total blessing from God.  My oldest son is dyslexic and the school system we were in was not equipped to deal with a very bright kid that was struggling academically.  We have been so happy with the difference in school systems and want our kids to stay in the same schools.  My kids miss playing in the woods, having goats and cows and the peace.  We have also had a very bad experience with a neighbor from hell (although we have many super sweet neighbors) so we’ll see what happens and if a move ends up in our future.

The second part of my purge is personal.  With the stress of starting my business and the extra time it consumes, I have managed to pack on some weight which I am not at all happy about…actually, I am miserable about.  And since I am setting a goal, I might as well get myself where I really want to be and that will require losing 30-40 pounds so I can get my bikini body back in time to hit the beach the first of June….

This is me at my ideal weight about 6 years ago at our old house….unfortunately, since I am the family photographer, the only picture I could find was me trying to keep my youngest son from blowing his birthday candles out before we were ready! 

So, here’s how it’s going to go….I am going to post an update at the end of each month with pictures of any areas that I declutter and clean out as well as news about how my weight loss is coming along.  If you have similar goals, then please join in!  The more the merrier and we can all keep each other motivated and encouraged through this next year!  Hopefully we can get rid of some junk (both in our home and in the trunk)!

(P.S….I realized while typing this post that I have never showed you all our last house (which was a true labor of love).  I’ll post about it next week and show you some pictures.  Here is a little glimpse just for fun!

Weren’t the surroundings beautiful?!!