I wrote last week about beginning my intentional journey towards minimalism. Since then I've continued daily de-cluttering marathons. It's difficult to notice a major difference in our surroundings so far as many rooms look as if they've been turned inside out. However, I wanted to share with you today my very favorite part about de-cluttering and minimizing so far.

The kitchen. The very words strike fear into the hearts of women everywhere. Cue the frightening music and lightning strikes. Clean. Cook. Clean. Cook. It's a vicious cycle. As a stay-at-home parent, it has been especially dreadful for me since I serve two meals a day plus snack to two tiny humans plus dinner for the entire family. Clean. Cook. Clean. Cook. Every single day. Our dishwasher even had to run while we slept in order to keep up! Can you relate?

When the minimalist bug bit me, the first two places I began de-cluttering were my closet and our kitchen. For my closet, I removed only my favorite pieces and boxed up the rest to revisit at a later date. In the kitchen, I pulled out everything from the cabinets and placed it onto the floor. I cleaned the shelves inside each cabinet and then I viewed the mountain of stuff in front of me that somehow had fit inside our kitchen storage areas just moments before. It was kind of like looking at a newborn and considering how it had fit inside my abdomen just moments before except this stuff was definitely not cute. The amount of stuff was borderline alarming.

I view myself as a fairly practical women so the fact that I had multiple casserole dishes (with dust on them), 5,376 Mason jars and multiple mixing bowls left me scratching my head. Where does it all come from? How do we allow so much stuff to trickle into our homes little by little, unnoticed, and leave it to sit unused?

As I cleaned each cabinet, I counted out only 10 Mason jars, only my favorite set of casserole dishes and favorite mixing bowls. Whew. Better already. But I took it a step further. I boxed up our extra plates, coffee cups and glasses to store for when we have company, but not to be used day-to-day. I was sure that with my chaotic housekeeping style that I would certainly be climbing back up to take a few dishes back down in a manner of days, but I haven't. I didn't expect this, but washing dishes has been much more manageable. Dare I say fun? We haven't ran out of the dishes we need because they were sitting dirty in the sink which oddly enough happened quite often when we owned MORE dishes. I imagine this is because, before downsizing, each load in the dishwasher held a hodgepodge of dishes. At times the to rack would be only cups! Now the loads are more balanced. There are a few plates, cups and bowls with every wash. It is balanced and our lives are feeling the balance as well. Not to mention, the dishes also easily (and quickly) fit into one dishwasher load which is important with the aforementioned tiny humans running around in this place.

If you're afraid of committing to owning less, try boxing up your extras and storing them in a closet. If you miss them or need to use them they'll be there. If you realize two months have passed and you don't remember what's inside the box, donate it. I'm no professional at this by any means, but I can tell you already that minimizing is saving both my sanity and my Motherhood. Good luck.