Farewell.
I imagine you probably knew this before I did. It seems pretty clear now, the trickling off of posts from daily to weekly, to ones like, day 223-day 241 may have been my first clue. The long, thought-out posts with a definitive direction, some humor or good music over time slowly became the three sentence wrap-up so I could get to Dancing with the Stars in time. The time from when my thoughts throughout the day were formed into clever anecdotes I could relate to the blog slowly morphed to the time when my thoughts of the blog dwindled to the 15 minutes before my fingers hit the keys. Writing it out, well, it really does seem clear now for even me to see.
I am finished with this blog now. The project is complete.
I am ready to do some new things. I want to write for my children and my family— their stories. I already write one minute wrap-ups of the day (when I think of it). I have a little folder on my desktop to remind me to do it. When I read through those I am so amazed by the little things I forgot about that happened maybe only two or three weeks ago. It brings me such joy when I rediscover them by reading back through them. It’s a little alarming and sad too, to realize how much I lose so quickly. I want to remember those things. I want to remember the time when Zoe dropped trou. in the middle of the sidewalk to practice her new potty skills. I want to remember the cool pizzeria birthday party Elliot went to where all the kids played pinball ’til every last adult had fished the last of their quarters out of the dusty bottoms of their purses or pocket. Sometime way in the future, I want to remember that this was the time of my life that a solo trip to the laundromat was so exciting because I got two uninterrupted hours of blog writing time. I think I might miss that feeling someday and I want to remember some of that little cool stuff. I would remember some of it, but I’m greedy, I want to have more little snippets of the past to recall someday. I want to write more of that for us. I still have half-finished scrapbooks and half-finished Snapfish albums all over the place that I would like to set final details in before those little things are just gone to me.
Before I go I would like to share some of the amazing things that have come to me through this blog over the past year. It’s not the comments or hits from interesting places like Argentina or Botswana (although those are nice). It’s not the requests from advertisers or the features on fabulous blogs (again, I’m not complaining). It’s getting my voice across, being heard, and getting feedback that people like it and think it’s funny or inspiring (that is still hard for me to say) that moved me the most. It makes me blush to even type it. In real life, one or two sentences into a conversation I put my giant foot in my even bigger mouth. Ah, the power of the delete key. And, although I wouldn’t exactly say I am shy, there are times when I feel intimidated and can’t get my mouth to say what I want it to without saying too much or too little. I fear that my opinion will offend or the words will just be wrong. I often worry that I am dominating conversations too much or not saying enough. Writing releases me from that awkwardness and lets my words be what they wanted to be all along.
I know that sounds a little high-falutin’ for a humble decluttering blog, but in that I see a small kernel of an opportunity. I won’t be writing a blog about decluttering anymore, but what more could I write about? What if I could write my point of view about other things and be heard?
By far the most important thing I have gained from this year of writing is friendship; true, deep friendships with new and interesting fan-freakin’-tastic people all over this globe. It astounds me that I can hit publish here in Virginia and within minutes have a response from someone living their life in Georgia, Maryland, Australia or Finland having the same problems and enjoying the same things I do. Also, those people I see day-to-day: moms from play group, people from the gym, old school friends, even my mom; they tell me they laughed so hard when I write things like the time I wrote about the farter in yoga class when I gave up my yoga mat, or what to really expect from a toddler when I tossed that book out the window. It has brought me closer to them too. Did you know even the guys at my husband’s work read from time to time? When I first started they were all over this blog telling me where I should put my ads and what fonts I should use and how wide my columns should be. Scott came home with a list of notes almost daily. It’s pretty awesome to have a bunch of dudes get excited over your housekeeping blog. One of them even asked me for tips on clearing out his closet mid-way through the year. Cool. It’s really cool is about the only way I can sum that up.
Oh, and my house is really decluttered too, but really, turns out, that is about the least important of all of it.
I have so much to be grateful for to this project, that is why it was really difficult to decide to bring it to its close.
There is no way I could ever stop writing. I never thought to do it before this blog and I could never think about stopping after. It was love-at-first-type. It is so a part of me, to stop would be like cutting a finger off or poking out an eye. Ew, those are some gross analogies, but you get my point. I have to do it. I don’t just want to, I have to. So although this is farewell to DeclutterDaily.com, it is not goodbye. I don’t know where or when I will pop back up in the blogosphere, I suspect it will coincide with the beginning of preschool for my youngest child, but I know I will. And, it’s you that I hope comes along. When I do pop up again whenever it be, I will post it here for you to know.
One last note of business, if you want some good, solid decluttering advice, here is where I go: 365lessthings.com. Coleen has done what I have done. She write really good advice daily, she is easy to read and she gives feedback to everyone.
If you want a good decluttering laugh, go here on Wednesdays. unclutterer.com Just go. Trust me.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for making me laugh.
Thank you for encouraging me.
Thank you for making my blog important.
I can never say thank you enough.
Uh, I mean, playing with the kids and cooking nutritious meals. Seriously though, this might be the most surprising benefit and the one I love most.
