#98 - The Christmas Cleanout: 5 Questions to Simplify Your Home

This week on Homeschool Unlocked, we're tackling the holiday chaos head-on with practical tips to declutter your home and heart before Christmas. 🎄 Whether you're facing overflowing closets, duplicate items, or guilt-laden keepsakes, we share simple questions to guide you in letting go. Join us for a joyful, stress-free approach to preparing your space for new blessings! 

https://1lnk.page/MonicaAviles

Transcript

Welcome to the Homeschool Unlocked podcast, the show that helps parents see homeschooling as a unique opportunity. So forget fear, you can inspire, you can guide your child. Homeschool Unlocked, it's not school, it's life. Good day Homeschool Unlocked family, this is Jesus, and I've been away for a little bit, but I am back. I'm here with my queen, Monica, and we are Homeschool Unlocked, the great team. Welcome, if you're joining us for the first time, we want to say thanks for spending these next 10 minutes with us, whether you're folding laundry or you're driving, thank you so much because we're here to help you during this holiday season. Just consider a few things as you are likely decluttering because it's time to get some gifts. I will say, you know, we're going to talk about decluttering because whether you realize it or not, when this holiday comes in, you're going to clutter, right? You're going to get gifts, you're going to get things, you're going to upgrade, you're going to update, and it all needs space. And so you're going to have to move some things aside, you're going to have to make some tough decisions, and that's what we find ourselves doing, and we find it super fruitful, super beneficial to simply share with you the things that we're walking through. Yes, and let's start with a couple of true and false questions. So, true or false, honey, Americans spend more money on Christmas gifts than they do on groceries in December. Correct. True. Absolutely true. That is very true.I don't know by how much, but it is true. All right, question number two. Let's see.True or false, Americans decorate their houses with over 150 million Christmas lights each year, which is enough to power a small country. Correct. This is like America, United States? Yes.Correct. Yes, we do. Yes.Clark Griswold would be proud. Americans string up over 150 million Christmas lights each year. But I will say, although Clark Griswold would be happy, the Grinch would not be.That is true. But we love this time of year. We love the fact we know that the real reason for the season is Jesus, and yet we also keep in mind that it's just a season of being focused on His goodness, too, even in the midst of all the gift-giving and everything.It's just a tangible way to express joy, and we have learned some things. We've grown in our gift-giving, being more intentional, and focusing more maybe on doing things together and the experiences together than on the gifts. But it's so fun to get gifts, and it's fun to buy gifts, too.Yes, it is. As you're decluttering, if you're focusing on a specific area, I just want to share some things because right now I'm working on decluttering our office. Oof.There's a lot of things here that I thought we lost or gave away long ago, but we obviously did not. And here's what I'm doing. I am taking everything out of the office because I want it to be a blank canvas.So if you can do that, you might find it beneficial. And there's also this reality check that I want to be reminded of just how much stuff we have. So I'm physically taking everything out, except I'm leaving the shelves on the wall, but I'm taking everything out of the office and starting with a blank slate.Now, there is a step one to that particular step. Before you clear out, you need to clear out the space that you're going to put all this stuff at. So we did have to think through just a little bit, and so we were using our living room, dining room, little school area, which is we're getting to the season where we just put a pause in it for the holiday season.So we cleared that out, threw some stuff away there, first cleaned that out, so then we're shifting all this stuff there so that we can work our way back. So that is a step 1A and a 1B. Yeah, so I want to share some questions that I ask myself, and Mila is very good.I know if you have followed us a little bit, you know Mila is our 17-year-old, and she's very good about helping me. She's kind of my Jiminy Cricket. I have to have her with me because I get attached to things, and so she'll help me with this.One of the questions is, do we use this regularly? Do I use this regularly? If it's not something that I haven't used in the past maybe six months, well then you know what? It's probably time to let it go. Maybe the past three months. Again, we're talking about now we're faced with all the stuff we've taken out of the office, and we're looking at it, and we're making the determination, do we use this regularly? If we do, we keep it.If not, well as beautiful as it may be. And it helps you because it also helps us assess the money we may have unwisely invested at the time, or we wisely invested at the time, and thank the Lord we're brighter, we're smarter, we don't need this particular resource, we can move it on. Yeah, no, it's true.If I wouldn't buy the item again, like we bought it, but you know what? I'm looking at it, and would I buy it again? If I wouldn't buy it again, then probably it's not something that we need. And so I'm becoming more aware of just the connection between if it takes up space in our house, it takes up time in some shape or fashion. I like it.I like it. I'm having to clean around it, or I'm having to clean it, whatever it is. So another question would be, do I have more than one of this item? I, you know, he's used to jokes sometimes, he's like, I will send my wife to the mall, and I'm not concerned, but send her to like the clearing section or the Dollar Tree or something like that.That's true. Hey listen, I can give my wife a kabillion dollars. I send her to the mall, she's going to come back with a kabillion dollars.She's going to look at all that stuff and say overpriced, over this, don't retail me not. But if I send her to the swap shop, the thrift store, some consignment shop, hey, it does get dangerous. Estate sales.Estate sales, which we found wonderful things at. And that first question that Monica started off with, you know, is this something I use regularly? It's always nice to keep that in mind. Yeah, sometimes I will buy something because it's so well priced, and then I'll end up with more than one of it.But if I have duplicates of it, and I'm not using them, let them go. So that's another question that I have to ask myself. I also have things that, you know, as a in-family, extended family, blah, blah, I may have.Am I keeping this out of guilt or obligation? Is it something that's been given to me, but I actually don't want it or I don't need it? Yeah, yeah, there are times when you make purchases and there's associations tied to it, right? The great moment when you bought it, a memory that's connected to something or someone else. Yeah, you get it from vacation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like, oh, I remember 1978.Yeah, I was with my uncle. Yeah, yeah, that's what this fishing rod's about. Now, the fishing rod is filled full of termites and it's not even, I mean, it's time to let the fishing rod go.So this helps us really assess, hey, why am I keeping this? Going back to, is it used regularly? You know, you're going to realize that you're going to be putting on some heartstrings. Some of these things have attachments to other things, and you've got to just trace it back just a little bit, and maybe that just leads us to bundle all those associated things and give the whole thing away instead of just the one, two, three, four, five books and the picture frame, you know? Even with mugs, coffee mugs is such a popular thing to have a lot of. So, you know, Mia will let me know, okay, Mom, there's like 15 here.Go ahead and pick three. Which three make you the happiest? Yeah. And so I may not need those three, but at least it's a step in the right direction.I may, you know, and she'll tell me, okay, if in a month you haven't used these, then it's time to let them go. But it's kind of a nice little baby step towards that bigger step of just letting it all go. If I don't need it, and I've got, you know, is it guilt or obligation, take a picture with the mug.And then, you know, think. I have to think. I'm going to give this to some thrift store or whatever, and it's going to make somebody else happy.You know, while you're speaking, my love, you know, I mean, there might be some in the audience that are listening to us, and they may be thinking, I don't need to necessarily declutter. So homeschool unlocked family, you need to understand something. You are always listening for yourself and somebody else.So we'll go through a couple little items on how to process items. Maybe you're not the one who needs to declutter. Maybe you don't have the office packed full of stuff.Maybe you're not the one with stuff attached to it. You're buying things that you don't regularly use. You're buying duplicates.Maybe that's not you, but you know somebody. And you're able to come alongside them and understand, maybe refer them to this particular podcast, and kind of gently love them through the process. Because you know what? Things that distract, they really get in the way.And this is just one way to become effective, more efficient, to kind of do the things maybe the Lord's asking you to do more directly, getting some things out of the way. Yeah, it's true. Because living with less, because it does free up space and time, you actually get to enjoy what you have, the things that you do keep more, the people that you have in your home more.And it does. It is a part of building that skill set and that character. So even decluttering, as your kids are seeing you do it, you're teaching them life skills.You're helping them in those areas. And if you are being the one who's supporting somebody else, well then you know what? You're teaching them how to be a good neighbor. Good job, neighbor.That's right. Not a way to love your neighbor. And then another helpful question is, will I miss this in a week? Is it something that I'm going to notice, or is it like out of sight, out of mind? You know, I didn't really need it.And you can test that one. That particular question, am I going to miss it in a week? Hey man, just put it aside for a week. And if you don't go to it, guess what you're not going to miss in a week? That thing.Now listen, I've done this all the time. I've gotten rid of stuff that I really should not have. Stuff that in a month, in two, in four, in five months I would have needed.But wow, when I say there is a burden when carrying XYZ things that you're going to come back to in a couple months. I mean, hey, just let it go. Let's do it again.Right time, right space. Get it done right. And so Monica, these are wonderful questions to ask yourself when kind of determining what needs to stay and what needs to go.Thank you so much for joining us. And let me close this out with one last true or false question. Let's do it.Do I get to answer it? Yes. I'm ready. True or false, the busiest day for online shopping returns is the day after Christmas, lovingly referred to as the National Regift Day.False. You are doing great. You are three for three.Yes. False. The busiest day for online shopping returns is actually the first day in January, which is known as National Returns Day.And it's not the day after Christmas. Really? Yep. Any explanation as to why people wait a week? Maybe they're still on vacation or just enjoying family.They finally get home, finally settle a week later. You realize what was given to you, what wasn't. Like, man, these are my 15th pair of like polo shorts.Maybe I should just return six of them. Something like that. Well, Home School Unlocked, we love you guys.We're approaching the holiday season. We ask you to keep Christ in Christmas, to remember the reason, to remember the good news that came down from heaven. And while you do that, get nonsense out of the way.And the nonsense in this particular case that we're talking about is decluttering at home. So we love you guys. We look forward to seeing you guys next week.Have a great week. Bye. Who else needs to hear this? Only you know.So take action and share it. Because remember, Home School Unlocked, it's not school, it's life.