Decluttering Like We're Moving

 Many of you are here because of my decluttering posts. 

During our big years of decluttering, 2024 and 2025 - see sidebar for all of those posts - I read many books and especially leaned on The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. We quoted famous organizers/decluttering experts with key phrases like "Does this bring me joy?" or "If I was moving would I move this item?"

If you've been here a LONG time, you'll remember that our decluttering journey really began when the kids were 5 and 9 as we prayed over an opportunity to move. We didn't move that year BUT we started a new lifestyle.

Now we find ourselves in 2026, rather unexpectedly moving.

Yes, you read that right, Amy "Hates to Change" Riley and family are MOVING IN SUMMER 2026! I will save the incredible God story behind the move until we have everything closed, but for now we are in the greatest declutter session of our life!

We moved into our current home in the summer of 2013. We had a one year old and were moving from a 900 sq foot house to a 1900 sq foot house. We just moved all of our stuff and then slowly filled this house over the years.

Even though I wrote in March that I felt we had truly decluttered and that we were in a maintenance phase...the move has pushed us to clean-out all over again.

So, now that we are moving out after 13 years, with an 11 and 14 year old, what are we decluttering?

1. Items We Have Outgrown

While the co-op free table and kids sale have held us pretty accountable, we still had quite a bit of things the kids have just gotten to be too old for. We did a very deep declutter in our school room and passed along totes of games, puzzles, books, and activities that the kids have outgrown. We were able to bless many homeschool families and also my nieces and nephew. Because we have custom storage, thanks Dad, in our school room it's been very easy to just keep things. The move forced us to really evaluate having it just to have it vs passing along to someone who will actually use it.

2. Items We Won't Have Room for at the New House

While the new house is larger than our current one, the set up is different and the main living/dining spaces are more condensed. Not everything that we have here will have a place at the new house so we have been trying to pass along as much as we can. 

3. Items that are holding us back

Through our decluttering journey, I have let go of many sentimental items. Lots of pictures, cards. yearbooks through Grade 8, etc BUT I still had some items that were leaving me stuck in the past.

Most specifically, was a clearance rack white dress that I bought as my original wedding dress. I bought it while living in my apartment in Louisville for around $20. I LOVED this dress. I remember trying it on for my family and everyone being very underwhelmed by it. In the end, Mark and my mom planned a bigger/fancier wedding that I had wanted. I have held onto that dress, moving it home from college, to our apartment in Greenwood, to our house in Greenwood, and to this house. I just couldn't let it go. It represented what I had wanted, as all of our first major compromises were about the wedding. Finally, a few weeks ago, I said "Amy, do you really want to move this dress again?" I don't. I want to finally let go of what I wish my wedding had been like and getting rid of the dress is a huge part of that process. 

4. Items that no longer serve us

Examples: Skirts that are 3 sizes too small, a glass measuring cup with all of the measurement markings worn off, holiday items we used for a holiday but never again, scrapbook stickers/supplies when I haven't scrapbooked in years, etc

None of these things are big. None of them were taking up heaps of space. That is probably why they were skipped over in all of our other cleanouts. THIS is the time to let them serve someone else. 

All in all, we have had hundreds of items leave our house since deciding to move and it feels so freeing! It feels wonderful to know that we will only be moving items that we use, that we love, and that bring us joy!

Mother's Day 2026

We signed papers on the new build the day before this

and ran out to the lot before church to celebrate. 

It's been a wild summer! 

Are we still decluttering?

 In both 2024 and 2025, I shared a LOT about our decluttering journey. Many of you enjoyed following along, letting me know what you were getting rid of, and asking questions about our journey. If you want a recap you can click "Decluttering" on the side of this post for that complete list of posts.

We have opted NOT to have a coloring sheet to track in 2026. Why? To be honest, 2024 was my idea and I loved that it motivated us. But in 2025 it felt like one more thing I had to do. All of the uncolored boxes felt like a task that was bigger than I wanted to take on. I was SO thankful when we finished and did not feel like I wanted to track again.

So...imagine my surprise on January 1, 2026 when the family asked "Where is our coloring sheet?" I didn't have it in me to have that huge goal hanging on my fridge all year. I knew that over the past two years, we had woven 'letting go' into our daily lives. I knew we could continue to clean out, declutter, give away, donate, throw away, recycle, etc without a coloring sheet.

What I didn't anticipate was YOU all wondering how our coloring sheet is going! I am surprised that weekly someone mentions it to us! 

So...this week I thought it would be fun to track and share what we, organically, let go of and to count how many items entered and exited our house.

First, one of the KEY aspects of owning less is bringing less into our home. This week was Mark's birthday and so four new items entered our home: two shirts, a tech item, and a kitchen item. Mark and I each also received birthday gifts from his family. My mother-in-law knows me well and gifted me cupcakes (they were gone within days) and coffee money! Zero Clutter, Big Joy! Mark got a survival kit and I got a set of post cards from his brother's family. Total items in: 6

Here is what we let go of this week:

Friday: I wrapped my sister-in-law's birthday gift. I saw that we were down to the end of a roll of sparkly macaroon wrapping paper. I used the last of it and recycled the roll. 1 Item.

Saturday: On our Disney cruise, we picked up a bunch of coloring puzzle sets for my clients. I took way too many and realized it is going to take me a while to gift them all. I took two along to my niece and nephew as they love Disney. My niece and I had a great time coloring hers. 2 Items.

Monday: We wrapped Mark's birthday gift. I purposely chose a role of paper that was near the end. We wrapped two boxes, finished the paper, and recycled the roll. 1 Item. 

Tuesday: I took books back to the library and also took a fleece of Mark's for the free outerwear box. Mark has had the shirt for a year, not worn it all fall or winter, so he knew it was time to pass it on. Our library has a whole box of free outerwear that anyone from the library can get items from. 1 Item.

Wednesday: I found a box of muffin mix, purchased two months ago, in our pantry. I baked the muffins and use throw-away tins that we inherited last summer when we cleaned out Momaw's house. This made a zero cost snack to take to co-op this week. -- One of Annabeth's friends is doing a Senior Project where she is donating gently used dance items to studios in need. Annabeth kindly donated a costume she wore just six times last year. 4 Items. 

Thursday: We took items to co-op with us. We took some activity books, magazines, and bracelets from Annabeth's collected. We also passed along a game and two Harry Potter necklaces to specific friends. 13 Items. 

Total Items Decluttered with Zero Effort: 22!

We try very hard to live by the "One In, One out" rule. This week we had 6 in and 22 out so we succeeded! 

2,025 in 2025!

 Yesterday we finished our 2,025 in 2025 Decluttering Challenge!

Surprised?!

ME TOO!

If you remember, we cleared out 2,024 items in 2024. We finished in late September, having actually started in November of 2023. It was a project I took on, inspired by my friend Justina over at Well Planned Mama, and that the family went along with it. In the end, we all learned a lot! I was VERY into the project and loved the process. I shared many updates last year on the blog and loved talking about it with people in "real life" too. I felt accomplished, in control, and excited that we had done it. Mission Complete.

So...imagine my surprise when on January 1, 2025 Mark and the kids asked where our 2025 coloring sheet was and where we would declutter first! I had no intention of doing the project again or asking them to do it again but they asked - so we did! 

Now, not even all the way through August, we are 2,025+ items lighter!

Annabeth decluttered and colored in the final 10 squares yesterday!

Last year I made a point of not setting monthly goals or personal goals and that worked really well for the family. This year I only had the goal that I wanted to be patient and try to sell more than last year. Last year felt like a frantic rush to let things go but this year the house already felt more manageable. In 2024 we made just over $500 from our decluttering and this year we made just over $1700. This was a huge blessing in our budget as we spent a decent amount of money on gas, experiences, and lodging as we traveled Indiana and to the kids dance nationals. I am thankful that we were able to turn stuff into money for experiences!

So...where do we go from here?

Well, we already have three huge totes filled and tagged for the HWGA Kids' Sale in October. These items are NOT included in our 2,025 items gone so we're already well on our way to keeping the trend of letting go, going!

ALL of this is leaving soon!

Another 100+ items headed to new homes

How do I feel now that it's done?

I am glad we did it again! When my Momaw passed in June, we were blessed with many items from her home. We took some furniture, clothing, decor, Christmas ornamnets, etc and thus quite a few items entered our home. Thankfully, we knew right where each item was going to live and how we wanted to use them. Our decluttering journey helped us wisely choose to bring in only items that we love and/or that serve us well. It's given us the confidence to say "I don't need that" and even "I don't want that" when offered something or out shopping. We choose to bring in less, manage what we have, and to continue to bless others with our excess. 

Secretly, I am hoping we've created such a standard of letting go that we won't even need to color and track in the future. I hope that we've all learned to simply let go when it's time to do so.

Are you on a decluttering journey? Are you meeting your goals? 

Our 2025 Family New Year's Resolutions

 Happy 2025 Again!

This year our family came up with three New Year's Resolutions. 

I was very surprised that they came up organically without me prompting anyone to make them.

Here's how we plan to live in 2025:

1. Choose joy and contentment 

As we read through many people's end of the year posts, Mark and I were both surprised at just how many people reported having a tough, horrible, or forgettable year. As we talked about our own lives, we mentioned just how long it's been since we felt like we've had a "hard year."

Is our life perfect? Have our years been perfect? Absolutely not! In 2020, I faced major health issues and life changing surgery for our family, we lost Mark's dad in 2021 which has forever altered our family, we've lost family and friends, we have had bad days, financial woes, etc. 

So what is the difference?

We choose contentment. For years, we've had a sign in our kitchen that says "The secret to having it all is knowing that what you have is enough." I look at that reminder many times a day.

We choose joy. My friend Lauren once shared the quote, and I don't know the original author or speaker so forgive me on that but it changed everything for me. "Joy is not in my circumstances, it is in knowing the Lord." Ooof. I have and know the love of Jesus - what else do I need?

2. Live by our 2024 Family Quote Again: "The happiest people do the most for others." Booker T. Washington. 

Owen had this quote in a school book and chose it as his "wall verse." It hangs on our living room wall next to the Golden Rule. It was such a bold way to decide to live 2024 and it changed so much for us and our attitudes about service. It enriched our year so very much to choose daily to do for others - we all learned and grew so much that we decided to keep on living for Jesus and others.

3. Decluttering 2,025 Items in 2025

Are you surprised? Honestly you cannot be more surprised than I was when my family ASKED for this!

We decluttered 2,024 Items in 2024 and I answered your questions afterwards. I was inspired by my friend Justina at The Well Planned Mama and she offered her printable to me. The kids absolutely loved coloring in her coloring sheet and we had the best time getting rid of items. We finished in the fall and it was so freeing!

I have mentioned several times on here that even after our coloring sheet was done I kept seeing items show up in the donation box, we kept taking items to the free table at co-op, we kept passing on clothes in our family clothing trade circle, etc. I have also told people I feel like we really changed the culture of stuff in our home.

So...imagine my surprise when the kids each mentioned independently that I needed to get our 2025 sheet ready. Then, Mark asked when we were starting! Wow! So on Janaury 1 we began counting again. It's clearly been needed as we've already parted with 30+ items from our kitchen that I thought had been so carefully edited last year. 

I am genuinely curious how this project will feel this year. Last year, as we began the year, my home felt too full and I was so overwhelmed by it. But now it feels so well managed! We have so much blank space! We all have clothes that fit, items we love, items we use, and a space that I am proud of! This year instead of the project being about me, it seems to be about them. 

Here's to 2025 and chasing dreams, reaching them, and dreaming again! 

Enjoying Disney World -

SO thankful our kids are experiencing experiences and travel vs wanting stuff! 

2,2024 in 2024 Q&A

 WOW! First of all, thank you for the incredible response to our 2,024 in 2024 completion! I have received many messages over the year, had many in person converstions, and received some questions after posting that we were finished. Here are some of the most asked questions and my answers:

I am so overwhelemed. I don't know where to start. 

Start somewhere small, unemotional. A junk drawer. Your sock drawer. Someplace you can quickly sort through, throw things away, give things away, and then keep going back to that tidy space. If it brings you JOY, then pick another space and keep going. 

Do you have advice about getting started as a family? 

First of all, I highly suggest you take the time to understand each person's relationship, and your own, with stuff. WHY do the objects you keep matter to you? DO they matter? WHY do other people in your home value their items? 

Our relationships with stuff are incredibly complex. Some people keep items due to depression and being unable to clean out. Some people get a real sense of energy from having lots of beautiful items in their space. Some people have an anxiety about parting with items. What if they miss them? What if they need them later? Some adults grew up with very little and having lots of items now gives them a feeling of security. 

There are no wrong feelings about our objects, just differing opinions. I would say though if the stuff in your space feels overwhelming first address your emotions, then the clutter.

What if I am the only one in my home who wants to declutter?

This is very common. Start in your own spaces. Do your dresser, closet, workspace, craft area, etc. While you cannot control everyone in your home, you can control you. Maybe your cleanouts will inspire them to do their own. If they don't, you can still find joy in your curated spaces. 

What were the easiest items to part with?

Non-emotional and small items. Junk drawer items, socks, clothes the kids have outgrown, shoes that don't fit, etc. I'm very practical so if it was no longer serving us, I could pretty easily donate. 

What were the hardest items to get rid of?

I have always struggled most with items that I paid money for. I am very frugal, shop very little, and so when I do it's a real mental sacrifice. Because of that, I always want to save anything I personally paid money for. I joined several decluttering Instagram feeds and kept seeing a quote to the effect of - even if that item is in your storage, you aren't getting your money back. That was so helpful for me. Even if I paid money for an item, if I didn't like it anymore or it didn't fit anymore or I just wasn't using it - the money is gone! I can't get it back by keeping the item.

What about photos and keepsakes?

I am a HUGE photo person. I had nearly a dozen photobooks from middle school through college. I did keep my homemade scrapbooks but opted to really look through my snapshots. If it didn't immediately make me smile, I let it go. I pared down to two photo books from middle school through college. 

I also recycled all of my paper yearbooks. I had these from Kinder through 8th grade. I never looked at them, I never reread the notes in them, I just moved them in a box from place to place. Letting go of them felt great! 

I also let go of all of my old journals except my ones from the Mark and kids years. I journaled nearly every day from 4th grade through having Annabeth. These journals used to carry a huge importance to me. This year, I took the time to read them one last time and I realized the relationships I had when I wrote them are mostly nonexistent in my adult life. The feelings and attitudes were no longer of value to me. I thanked them for their service and shredded them. This was one of the most freeing things I did. Although it didn't clear a lot of physical space in our home, it created an incredible peace in my heart! 

What if the people in my home disagree about something?

On communal objects, for example cookbooks, or items that the kids share, for example comic books, our rule was that if one person wanted to keep it - we kept it. Because we aren't in the process of moving or having to pare down to a smaller space, we could technically keep anything we wanted. I hoped the kids would enjoy this process and that it would help reshape their ideas about what we own. I didn't want to force anyone into parting with anything. 

Did you regret anything you gave away?

Personally, no. There wasn't a single item that I gave away that I wished I had back. 

Closing thoughts...

In the end, our home is still plenty full. Our children have too many toys, Mark and I have too many clothes, our coat closet is still a mess - we're perfectly imperfect people just daily trying to live for Christ.

Leaning into Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I'm working on remembering that I am just stopping by this world. I should spend my days sharing about the perfect, redemptive love of Christ as I run the race set before me. Thankful for the undeserved gift of God's grace and love. I pray that we might store up our treasures only in heaven. 

2,024 Items Lighter!

2,024+ in 2024 COMPLETE!

 Yesterday, we completed our 2,2024 in 2024 Challenge!

That's right - over 2,024 items have left our home this year! WOW!

Things that helped this processs..

- Having the coloring sheet! The kids and I loved using the Well Planned Paper chart. It was very motivating to get near the end of each row and we would rush to see who could get rid of the items to finish it out.

- Working on the project as a family. Mark and I made a point of showing the kids what we were getting rid of and letting them see us color in our own spaces. We wanted to be intentional about it being a family project.

- Passing items on to family/friends who needed them. Many times over the year, I put free items on Facebook and it was great to see them go to homes that had a use for them. This was especially helpful with one large, sentimental item - the kids' picnic table. It was a gift to them from Mark's parents but we had outgrown it. Knowing it went to some dear friends who can (and do!) use it made all the difference.

- Having a designated place to take items when we were ready to part with them. Obviously, we weren't running to the donation center each day so we needed one space to collect items. I used a box on top of our dryer. Items that would work for the kids's sale were sorted into totes in the garage every few weeks and the rest was dropped off to donate around town. 

What did we learn...

Annabeth: "Once an item is in the giveaway tote. Don't look back at it. If you could put it there in the first place it needs to stay."

Owen: "I realized I didn't need to keep a lot of the junk I thought I did."

Mark: "Should have gone for more items. We still have a lot to get rid of."

Amy: It was so freeing! As I said in my first blog post about this challenge, we've been on this journey since 2020. It's been such a process and this year I let go of more sentimental and emotional items than ever before. I let go of all of my school yearbooks/memory books except for high school. I also let go of many items from family and friends who have left my life. Some I held onto, even if they were never used or broken, just as a way to hold onto the memory of that person. I realized I don't need the item to hold onto - the person is still in heaven. For other relationships that have ended with the people still living, I've found it especially difficult to let go of items but this year they left. Holding the items didn't mean I wasn't still holding the pain or rejection of those people, in fact maybe they made me hold it all more. 

Final thoughts...

I noticed as the year went on, that often I would see quite a few little boxes colored in at random. I wasn't aware of anyone doing a clean-out that day but on their own someone had decided to pass on items that no longer served them. 

I would say about 10% of our items went into the trash/recycling, 80% were donated/passed on, and 10% were sold. We sold some on Facebook and some at the Here We Grow Again sales. In all we made $546. This money went into our travel fund and was used as we went to Tenessee for dance and for some of our Indiana travels. I would MUCH rather have experiences than stuff and seeing that number motivates me to keep going through our items so we can have more experiences.

I hope that we have changed the culture of our home with this challenge. I hope that we've all, organically, become more able to look through our items daily and access what we really want/need. I also hope that by seeing how much we gave away, we've seen how much we don't need to bring into our home. I hope that we've all learned to live with and want less. 

Thank you, dear readers, for joining us on the journey. I've posted our totals at the end of each month and it's been fun to have people in real life share what they are decluttering! Here's to letting go of more...