I have a book on my desk that I’d love to give away to one of you:

TOO MUCH STUFF, by Kathryn Porter.

Kathryn was a guest on Mom 2 Mom a few weeks ago, and she has totally inspired me to do some major decluttering.

In her book, she shares her personal struggle (and victory!) over this area in her life, and now I feel like I have my very own organizing coach, cheering me on.

Here’s what her website, Clutterwise, says on the home page:

We love stuff.

Clothes. Shoes. Make-up. Jewelry. Books. Pictures. Movies. CDs. Letters. Recipes. Magazines. STUFF! Our consumer-driven society is constantly enticing us to want more, and before we know it—it’s just too much!

What begins as an innocent collection of odds and ends soon grows into heaping mounds of clutter and chaos. Before we realize it, clutter seeps in and sucks away our time, peace of mind, and our freedom. Clutter mentally and physically sucks the life out of us and traps us in a life we were never meant to have.

As we head into March next week, do you have an area of your home that you’d like to attack and declutter? It may be something small, like a junk drawer in your kitchen. Or maybe it’s bigger, like a closet … or even a room.

Leave a comment here about what project you’d like to attack, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win TOO MUCH STUFF. Let’s form our own DECLUTTERING support group. The chore is not such a pain when we know we’re not alone.

I’ll be taking off next week from this blog to do some major spring flinging around here. I’ll randomly pick out a winner from the comments next Friday, March 2 — just in time for the Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom. Sounds like great motivation to lose a few pounds (of clutter)!

The areas I most need to attack:

1) My file cabinet — purge and reorganize.
2) The basement — clean it out and set up a permanent gymnastics area for the girls (who started a new gym class last week and need to practice at home).
3) Set up a craft “station” in one of my kitchen cabinets — so that we have no crayons or markers outside of the kitchen (irresistible to busy toddlers).

How about you?