I met Tsh at Blissdom when she signed my book and she was delightful. Go check out her blog at Simple Mom. It's chalked full of great ideas for the family. I highly recommend that you go buy her book. I purchased mine at Borders, it's where I buy all of my books, because I can use a coupon. It retails for $16.99, but I had a 33% coupon, plus another 10% for being a Borders Reward Plus Member which made it a great deal.
Here is why I love the book so much. It's not your average organizational book. Don't get me wrong, it does give step by step process for cleaning and decluttering every room in your house, but she goes much deeper than that. She gets to the heart of living simply. There is a quote in the book by Will Rogers that stopped me in my tracks. It reads:
"Too many people spend money that haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like".
Does that hit home for anyone else? It knocked me upside the head I tell ya. I want to share with you something she wrote that really convicted me. Tsh writes,
"When we have more stuff, we usually have less time for relationships with other people. How many times have you wanted to invite another family over for dinner and games, but didn't because of Mt. Laundry on the couch and the food scraps stuck to the kitchen counters? Or did your son recently want to invite a playmate over for an afternoon of Lego building, but instead he needed to suit up for ball practice in between piano lessons and his sister's ballet class?
"Our homes and our calendars are filled to the brim, and someone has to take care of those things. Responsible adults do their best to keep their homes sanitary and to honor their commitments. But it's a bummer when being responsible means being chained to your stuff and your schedules, instead of enjoying relationships in a slower-paced way."
I don't know how many times Brian has said to me, "Let's have so and so over. I can call them and see if they can come by for dinner". This is usually my normal response. "Are you kidding me? Look at this house. It's a disaster." I have missed out on what's really important, relationships with others, because my house is too cluttered with all of the stuff. I also don't want my schedule to "own me". I want to live simply. I want my kids to be kids. I want my family to spend quality time together and not time spent cleaning the house.
I heard a statistic yesterday that said the average woman spends 40% of her day picking up and cleaning the house. There are days where I think, for me anyway, it's more like 80%. Well enough is enough. My girls deserve better than that. They deserve me 80% of the time. So they are going to get their mommy back.
The past 3 days I have gathered almost half of what we own and sorted it into 3 piles. Goodwill, stuff to sell at consignment and another to donate to Room in the Inn (ministry for homeless men). I can't tell you how good it feels to purge. I want to love and care for others instead of loving and caring for "My Stuff".
One last note: Don't forget to pick a deserving person this week to do Operation Project Vase. Link up on Friday to share your story. I will be drawing a winner on March 1st to receive a $50 gift card to Target. Be a blessing to someone this week.
(Tsh did not ask me, nor pay me to endorse her book. She doesn't even know I am writing this review. I am just simply a fan of her book and her message and wanted to pass it along to my readers.)
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