{use.your.good.dishes}

i was recently having a conversation with a group of ladies about deep-house cleaning ... a.k.a. "purging" and had stumbled upon a few articles that are too good not to share!

the first is "swedish death cleaning" {don't let the name scare you} which you can link to HERE

& the other is "89 things to remove from your home & your life" which you can read HERE 

while you may not follow every bit of this advice, there is some valuable information that may just be the inspiration that you need to get started!

we have done 3 what i would call major purges in the last 5 years, and with each, i find i want to get rid of more! the less stuff we have, the more enjoyable our life has become! it is so much easier to keep the house clean, to find things i'm looking for and to focus on the things that really matter!

during my last cleaning spree, i was cleaning in the basement. just that week, i had been on the lookout for some new dishes, because you  know, the 2 sets in my cupboard weren't "enough" for me. as i went through the dusty boxes stored on shelves in the basement, i opened one to discover some china dishes i'd nearly forgotten about. years ago, when my grandma had to move from her home to the nursing home, i'd inherited a partial set of china from her & ironically {?} a former pastor's wife had gifted me a set of china for my "hope chest" that she'd received and didn't particularly love that was the identical set to my grandma's partial set. these dishes had been sitting on a shelf, in a cardboard box, collecting dust in the basement untouched for 20+ years. since i'd recently been on the lookout for a set of dishes, i proceeded to clean out my kitchen cabinets, donating all the other plates, cups, bowls & more that had collected there and we now have one set of dishes, and yes, they are the combined china sets. 

yes, they are pretty, yes, most people would save them for their "good" dishes, their "company" dishes, but why? isn't saturday night pizza with my husband who i love dearly a special occasion? aren't burgers on the grill with my parents a reason to celebrate? aren't bbq ribs with our kids a reason to enjoy something nice? isn't every single day that God has gifted me with reason enough to use my good dishes? in addition to making every day a reason to celebrate, i opened up extra space in my kitchen cabinets, i simplified my life and i made use of something that was taking up space in the basement.

today, i want to challenge you, if you are looking to start making your life more relaxed, more enjoyable and certainly much more stress free, consider just one way you can remove something from your life that you really CAN live without! 

if you are brave enough, share with us what that item was ... and if you want some of my hints towards a more simple life, feel free to reach out to me, i'd love to share with you more of how we've done it, and how freeing it really is!