Every Tuesday, I share my thoughts on Family Life. 

The past few weeks have been extremely busy around our home, with the start of school, a protracted visit from my mother and 2 year old nephew, the football/fencing season and my own personal work projects.  When times get so hectic, I tend to turn a blind eye to the clutter that collects around our home.  I’m a stacker - I pile things around intending to get back to them or put them away "later" when there’s more time.  Just exactly when do I think I’m going to find this elusive "more time"?  I have no idea.

So I need to work on my personal habit of not dealing with clutter as soon as I create it.  Here are some of my recent examples of clutter stashes:

• The suitcase from this weekend’s conference that has yet to be unpacked
• The stack of informational materials from an event I hosted Sunday night that needs to be reboxed and stored
• Stacks of my children’s school papers from last year that need to be filed for posterity or recycled

The list could go on and on, but you get the general idea.  The clutter builds to the point that you can feel stifled and overwhelmed.  When I’m busy, I become numb to it, but I know that this type of thing is awful for my family and for my own mental health.  I was excited by the following video shared by a friend.  Grant, the star of this video, is sharing his decluttering online at a new site called 600things.com.   I admire his ability to put this "out there" to edify and inspire those like me who need to get our act together.  Watch the video and check out Grant’s site.  I don’t know if I can whittle my way down to only 600 things, but I can at least head upstairs and unpack that suitcase!