Striving for Blank Space in our Home

A few months ago, I read an article or blog post about Americans and our fear of white, or blank, spaces. The article was part of a post about decluttering and why so many struggle to let go of things. It discussed how, Americans especially, have this fear of "running out." So, when our fridge begins to show some white spaces, we rush to the store because "we have nothing to eat." When people clean out drawers and closets, they often can't enjoy them unless they are packed full otherwise people are left with a feeling of not having enough.

I found myself thinking about this article more and more. And I think it's true! My gift wrap tote three gift wrap totes is probably my best evidence of this. Who on earth needs three totes of gift wrap?! I justify it with "well, I'll never have to buy gift wrap" and tell myself it's okay because "I didn't buy any of this!" Which is true! It's all from Grandma, Momaw, and gift bags/paper that we have received in the past. I never buy any kind of gift wrapping. But sometimes when I wrap, I get a little anxious about using up some of my stash. It's ridiculous - I have enough gift wrap for the next twenty years but I "just don't want to run out." After coming to terms with this while wrapping some October birthday gifts, I realized that article was 100% true! I don't like the feeling of running out or not having enough or not being prepared.

So...this fall I have given myself the challenge of creating blank and white spaces in our home. It's a long, slow, hard process and with three other people in our house I cannot just get rid of half of everything and call it a day. But I am making small little strides and it feels so good!

For example, I have been working on our kitchen cabinets. Mark and I both are always frustrated with our cluttered cabinets so last week I took a morning and we did a huge clean out. Now they aren't overflowing, and guess what, it's okay! We still have plenty of cups and cookbooks - and, even better, we have SPACE!

 Nothing was in the dishwasher and we still had free space!

Hooray!

Our cookbook cabinet. We finally just have 

the ones that we use. I was able to let go of ones that I was holding

onto because "they were a gift, I can't get rid of them"

Another area where we currently have a lot of white space, is Owen's room. He has a 6 compartment storage unit in his room and currently three of the six are completely empty. No overflow of toys or books there. He is still young enough that I clean out all of his toys by myself and I know from Annabeth, it's much easier to part with things before he has an opinion. 

We have a lot of work to do and plenty of clutter filled spaces - our master bedroom is a crazy storage unit at the moment. But each week I am tackling at least one small space and one larger space. We are hosting a Junk Exchange in January and I gave myself the goal of adding one item a day to the "junk tote" before the event. So far I've been holding to it and it feels good!

What areas are you cleaning out? Do you fear white space?