Living Simply. Can it be Done?

For the past few months I have been pondering how grafting in two more children will effect our living space. I was slowly and reluctantly realizing that our house was too small and we would need to move. Part of me looked forward to a move. Maybe we could find a house with more land. Having another bedroom would relieve some of the pressure of all our stuff. My family and most of our friends live on the other side of town, and it would be so nice to live close to them. It is difficult to be actively involved in people's lives when you live 30 minutes away.
Then, I would look around my home and be sad. We have done so much to this house to make it our own. We even have plans to do more. We have wonderful neighbors down the street who we interact with on a regular basis. Jon works only one mile from our home. Most days he comes home for lunch. Our current location is close to so many things. Did we want to give all of that up? Not only were those reasons compelling to stay, but another main reason was financial. Did we want to increase debt just to have more elbow room?
Thursday night, I was cruising the Internet and decided to google the minimalist lifestyle. I have been accused by friends that I am somewhat of a minimalist. Really, I have way too much stuff to be considered a minimalist, but we do have less than most. Most minimalist are a bit, or more, into New Age as well. There are some Christian minimalists and I spent sometime reading their blogs. Needless to say, I was inspired.
It was as if God had just lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders. There is no reason to move. We just needed to get rid of our stuff. There is an enormous amount of stuff stashed away in our house that is never used. What is the point of keeping it all? It just takes up space. Friday I woke up with a mission. A mission to seriously de-clutter our home. We are only keeping what we love and use. There are going to be empty shelves and drawers in our house and we are not going to fill them. The hardest room is going to be the boy's bedroom.
Stay tuned for updates on our mission to simplify.