I'm back from my weekend away and settling back in.  Time for the next declutter your home and mind challenge.  This week's challenge is to clean out your cleaning supplies!  It is becoming more and more clear how many harmful chemicals are lurking in the cleaning products in our cupboard.  Time to clean up our health and clean up our environment by cleaning OUT these products!

Hand-me-downs are one thing I actually advocate storing and saving.  For one: saving clothes from our older kids to pass down to the younger kids, and accepting hand-me-downs from other families, makes it possible to raise a large family without going broke.  Equally important is the benefit for our planet.  It seems wasteful to me to purchase an entire new wardrobe for each child in every season.  Saving money on clothing allows our family to have wonderful vacations and adventures that we may not be able to enjoy if we were not living frugally.

Books are my biggest weakness when it comes to living minimally.  I love books, and I love holding onto and re-reading books.  Certain books I have I've read 5 times cover to cover.  Others I reference constantly.  Still others I've been carrying around for years waiting for the perfect time to read (or re-read them).  Over the past couple years I've made real progress limiting the amount of books in the house, mostly by cutting back on how many I buy, and making better use of the library.  2018 is also the year to begin purging!

I've always been someone who is (overly) concerned with other people's feelings.  Holding on to gifts from others for the sole reason of not hurting their feelings.  Can anyone relate?
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