You have to start somewhere

Welcome to my first blog post. As I mention in my "About" section, I have three kids with a lot of stuff. Seriously.  I really mean a LOT of stuff.  They have a large family room that somehow became their playroom and now you can barely see the floor. People who see it for the first time often tell us that we could rival just about any daycare. I can't blame them completely for all the clutter around the house. My wife and I have bought a fair amount of it.  We are also blessed with very generous family members who like to buy gifts for us all and since my kids are some of the younger ones on both sides, they receive a lot of hand-me-down clothes.  We are genuinely grateful for everything, however I've recently realized just how overrun our house has become. It's not just the kids' playroom.  It's the whole house. I also have been an occasional reader of a few blogs on minimalism and organizing. A couple of my favorites are Becoming Minimalist and Zen Habits. Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist has written a couple of books and I'm currently enjoying Clutterfree With Kids. That's my new goal.

Being an engineer and mathematician, I've always been a little bit obsessed with optimization and efficiency. I enjoy trying to find the "perfect" method to accomplish a task or the most efficient way to store and organize things around the house. As I've been reading more about the minimalist lifestyle, I realized the best way to organize all that stuff is to not have it around in the first place. I made the decision to declutter and this blog is intended as sort of a record of my progress. I want to share what works for me and what doesn't, and hopefully help others along the way.  I also plan some diversions to my other interests like mathematics and data analysis.  I can't help it.  I'm an engineer.