Teaching the Littles

Last week, I talked about decluttering and a couple of methods for doing that. I've done most of that for myself.

I live with my mom, so I don't have a lot of stuff. I have decluttered everything except for three things. My Christmas ornaments that have been in boxes since my divorce. My kitchen items that have been in boxes for the same reason, as we use my mom's. The last area, my photos. My dreams of creating photo albums haven't died. lol

This week, I had an urge to reread The Joy of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Why?

I wasn't sure but I know that often rereading the same info at different times in your life could give you a different insight. For this reason, I followed the prompting and checked out the digital copy from my library.

It didn't take very long to realize one big reason why. When I read it the first time, I was reading with two intents. One was in my own decluttering journey. I learned a lot and have applied the principles quite well. The other was for you guys. If I know what's said in that book, then I can use the principles in my coaching and writing so that you can understand in a way that comes through my perspective.

This time, something that stood out was the concept that we weren't taught to declutter as children. We had to self-teach or as adults seek out specific education through books, videos, or coaches.

I'm a parent. I have 6 children. My oldest is an adult and out of the house with his own little family. My efforts to teach him was limited at best. I had a lot of postpartum depression and I was still early in my own learning efforts. I tried to teach him the value of less as I learned. Now, he's on his own for learning unless he comes asking.

The remainder of my children live at home. They range in age between 9 and 16. I can still teach them a lot more. They've already been taught how to joy test from the KonMari method and yet, there is so much more I could teach them.

As parents, we have an important role to teach our children how to be successful adults. One of those is taking care of a house. So, this time reading through, my number one thought will be about teaching my children. This is a great time too as school is out for the summer. I'll continue to share what insights I get with you and yet my priority will be teaching my children.

So hold onto your hats kids, this mom is about to take decluttering to the family level.

Lots of love from my heart to yours,

Michele